Hilma af Klint Biopic Examines Artist Biopic Tropes and Spiritualist Abstraction

Lasse Hallström's 2022 film 'Hilma' portrays Swedish proto-abstractionist Hilma af Klint, played by Tora Hallström, grappling with spiritual visions and artistic recognition. The biopic depicts af Klint's formation of the all-women artists' group The Five with Anna Cassel, her engagement with spiritualism following personal losses, and her conflict with male chauvinism at Stockholm art school. Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian spiritualist, dismissed her work as not art, while Wassily Kandinsky later received credit for inventing abstraction. Af Klint insisted her paintings remain sealed until 20 years after her death, with recognition emerging from the late 1960s onward. The film employs familiar biopic templates—the misunderstood genius inspired by muses—seen in works like 'Frida' (2002), 'Lust for Life' (1956), 'At Eternity's Gate' (2018), 'Pollock' (2000), and 'Basquiat' (1996). In contrast, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's 'A Visit to the Louvre' (2003) offers an anti-portrait of Cézanne without depicting his art or person. 'Hilma' addresses historical sexism but reinforces stereotypes of artists' turbulent lives, prioritizing narrative over the art itself, which resides in galleries and museums.