Celebrating Artist & Baha'ist Mark Tobey's Faith and Art

Thanksgiving Leaf, aquatint by Mark Tobey, 1971

WISCONSIN - Mark Tobey was an American abstract expressionist who practiced the Baha'i Faith tradition, and whose works are included in the faith's national center in Illinois. According to Baha'i tradition, all art is a gift of the Holy Spirit, because it is the outcome of the light of truth coming into the mind of the painter. It is a form of worship and prayer. Tobey is perhaps the most prominent of painters and visual artists who have embraced the Baha'i teachings, but his style influenced others including Jackson Pollack. According to scholar, Rob Weinberg, there is no Baha'i Art style but a way of thinking which embraces universality. Baha'i art may be non-pictorial, as in the case of Mark Tobey but it may also be pictorial as long as it does not portray the faith's most holy leaders including Abraham, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, etc. Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was born in Centerville, Wisconsin , and is noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest."