A visionary gift meets classic painting training . Spirituality pairs with cosmopolitanism.
In Hilma AF Klint, opposites combine that merge together. There is a work that is far ahead of its time and will only be unveiled for several decades after the painter's death.
The Swedish artist 's abstract painting is a gift to the future that gives the viewer insight into his own soul.
From realism to abstraction
Hilma AF Klint was born in 1862 at Karlberg Castle near Stockholm in a noble family of sea officers. She dealt with cartography, botany and natural science, as well as painting at a young age. By supporting and promoting her father, she studied as one of the first women at the Royal Academy of Free Arts in Stockholm.
For five years she learned realistic drawing, portraying and landscape painting . After her extremely successful completion, she moved into a studio in the academy studio and made it mainly landscapes and botanical drawings, very up-to-date.
At the age of 44, the Swedish painter changed her style fundamentally and begins to write works of art that cannot be assigned to any of the then known art styles.
She created abstract paintings - in 1906 and thus far ahead of Wassily Kandinsky and other artists, who are still considered the inventors of abstract painting these days. At exhibitions, she continued to exhibit landscape paintings and portraits, as her abstractions in the art world at that time found no place.
Her work was only recognized for decades after her death . Hilma AF Klint, like other famous painters, was hardly considered for a long time.
View into the future
The abstract art of Hilma AF Klint remained hidden from the public for several decades. It was the artist herself who consciously decided on this confidentiality. Due to the lack of success of her abstract works of art and the lack of understanding of her contemporaries, she decided to bequeath her work of the future.
She designed a temple that should be run through visitors in a spiral, to a dome that should release the view into the stars. This vision of the artist was realized with the Guggenheim Museum completed in 1959. In October 2018, the big dream of the Swedish painter was realized.
The exhibition "Paintings for the Future" moved a total of over 600,000 people to the New York Guggenheim Museum , all of which had come to marvel at Hilma AF Klints.
Ryan Dickey from Evanston, IL / Chicago, United States, CC by 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It was only in our century that the impressive pictures of the Swede, which was far ahead of her time, find the deserved attention and recognition. Only through the successful exhibition in the Guggenheim Museum 2018 does the world seem to pay her the respect it deserves.
In 2019, the film "Beyond the Visible" by Halina Dryschka , who has the life story of the Swedish painter on the subject.
In 2020 the first biography was published in book form, "Humanity amazing" by Julia Voss . Exhibitions and museums all over the world are now showing their works that have been contained for the world for so long.
Visionair and pioneer of abstraction
The Swedish painter may rightly be considered a pioneer of abstract art . As early as 1906, she created the first abstract works and thus a few years before her contemporaries Wassily Kandinsky , Piet Mondrian or Kasimir Malewitsch . With these she shared her interest in spirituality , which had a significant impact on the work of this and other contemporary artists.
The aim of them all aimed to cross the boundaries of the physical world and to illustrate a spiritual world that had previously been invisible. The quantum physics and theory of relativity, which was rediscovered at the time, also had a great influence on the work of many painters and gradually let the world view at the time falter.
In her abstract works, Hilma AF Klint initially developed a predominantly organic design language that later became increasingly geometric. However, this work was not made accessible to the public during her lifetime - - she feared that her contemporaries were not yet willing to grasp the meaning of the pictures. In her will, she stated that the work should only be unveiled 20 years after her death.
The artist died in 1944, but her work was first exhibited in 1986. The exhibition "The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985" in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art then traveled to Chicago and the Hague and marks the beginning of their international recognition .
Hilma AF Klint was because of uniting the opposites in her works and getting the shapes in motion. She wanted to dissolve rigid regulatory systems, retracted thought patterns and dualistic worldviews and combine the contrasts.
Mediator between the times
Hilma AF Klint created abstract art that did not follow any of the then known style. Their paintings contain elements that can be seen as a foresight for upcoming styles. There are colors and motifs that are strongly reminiscent of pop or minimally , but also mystical symbols from around 1600 are taken up.
Due to her visionary gift, the Swede seemed to have been ahead of her male colleagues by years, sometimes even for decades. Nevertheless, the success of her work was long in coming. Even the Museum of Modern Art in New York mentioned the Swedish artist in his exhibition "Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925" in 2012 with no word.
In 2013, an exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm offered a comprehensive overview of the life's work of the Swede for the first time. After viewing the estate, a large number of paintings, paper work and even notebooks were made accessible to the public for the first time. The notebooks offered intimate insights into the artist's thoughts and visions for the first time.
The exhibition was not only shown in Stockholm, but also in the Hamburg train station, the Museum of Present in Berlin, and Malaga. The enormous success of the exhibition with over one million visitors led to the previously dominant narrative of the art history. The important role of the Swedish painter in abstract art increasingly came into focus.
Hilma AF Klint and other famous painters were apparently deliberately displaced from the then male -dominated art scene - perhaps because contemporary male artists recognized great competition and danger in the visionary.
A treasury for the future
At the age of 70, the artist decided in 1932 that after her death, her works should remain under closure for 20 years. Almost all of her notebooks and all works that should only be opened at the time it determined were provided with the character combination +X. Hilma AF Klint left around 26,000 note pages and 15,000 pictures and the instruction on how to issue it.
Your estate includes a well -thought -out system for future exhibitions . Only decades after her death was this treasure of the world showed and traveling to the globe to be exhibited in museums around the world. The abstract painting Klints should tell people in the future what their contemporaries could not understand.
Artist, medium and mystic
The work of the Swedish painter is strongly shaped by mysticism and spirituality . She read the old writings of famous mystics and regularly carried out spiritistic sessions together with other women. During his lifetime clints in artists' circles were widespread and an integral part of everyday life by many artists and scholars.
Theosophy and anthroposophy gave impulses for artistic work and offered a large source of inspiration, not only for Klint, but also for other artists of their time. The Swedish artist became a member of the theosophical society in 1889. In 1896 she founded the "Friday Group" , also known as "The Five".
The women met for spiritual gatherings every Friday. There they prayed, studied the New Testament, meditated and organized Sétälle. They practiced automatic writing and mediumist drawing. According to their own statements, women made contact with spiritual beings, which they called "the Hohe".
"paintings for the temple" at the age of 43 , which should change your life path forever. The "paintings for the temple" comprise 193 works and represent one of the first examples of abstract painting in Europe.
In 1908, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, gave some lectures in the Swedish capital Stockholm and attended the Hilma AF Klints studio, where he looked at some of her early abstract paintings. In 1913 Steiner founded the anthroposophical society, whose member of the Klint became in 1920. It remained part of society to the end of her life.
Hilma AF Klint described her painting style as mediumist . She addressed her spirits by name and said her pictures were painted directly through her. She heard voices that spoke to her from other dimensions and her courage to continue her work:
What I needed was courage. And I found it through the influence of the spiritual world, which gave me rare and wonderful instructions. "
Association of contrasts
Through her art, the painter wanted gifts to mankind that she had received herself and thus contribute to a larger and better world. Despite her spiritual side, the Swede was not a withdrawn, non -world person. On the contrary - she was world -oriented, open, enterprising and sociable.
She combined opposites and contrasts in her personality, which is reflected in her work.
Hilma AF Klint lived an open eroticism and sexuality and felt drawn to women. She traveled a lot, including to Italy, Amsterdam and London. In addition, she also moved a lot in her home country of Sweden, scored many people and lived in a variety of ways.
She herself said that marriage and family life were not for her and a force flowed into her that she always drove forward. In a different relationship with the present and the future, she was the majority of her contemporaries and was aware that she was ahead of her time. With her art, she not only wanted to reach the people in the present, but above all in the future.
Buy pictures of Hilma AF Klint
Originals of the artist are primarily sold at art auctions . Prices The most expensive work of Hilma AF Klint was auctioned on November 28, 2020 in the Bassenge auction house (approx. $ 64,604) . Most works in past auctions in recent years were between $ 1,000 and $ 5,000 in the price segment. However, it has been a strong increase in sales prices in the past 2-3 years.
In addition to art auctions, works by the Swedish artist can also be purchased from galleries . You can find a list at Artnet , the leading source of information for the international art market .
Reproductions or Hilma AF Klint poster are much more cost -effective receive poster online from the Swedish provider of Print-on-Demand Wandkunst, posterland.se
Current exhibitions
Currently, 128 works by the Swedish painter are exhibited in New Zealand under the title "The Secret Paintings" in the City Gallery in Wellington . Larger exhibitions are located in different countries several times a year.
Individual works by the artist can be found in many countries around the world. There is currently a work the Liljevalchs in Stockholm In the Guggenheim in Bilbao there are 9 works, in the new National Gallery in Berlin 6 works, in the Arken in Ishøj 8 Works, and a work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the Moderna Museet in Stockholm there are 16 works by Hilma AF Klint.
Current dates for exhibitions can be found in the Hilma AF Klint Foundation website .
Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza. Publicist, editor, and passionate blogger in the field of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Successful completion of a degree in web design as part of a university program (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expressive painting, and theater/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.
