Hilma af Klint's Largest Retrospective Opens at Guggenheim Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the largest retrospective ever dedicated to Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1922), featuring around 260 works and occupying an entire floor. Curated by Tracey R. Bashkoff, Senior Director at Guggenheim New York, and Lucía Agirre of Guggenheim Bilbao, the exhibition is promoted by Iberdrola. Af Klint, who began making art around the turn of the 20th century, adopted an avant-garde style with bold colors and complex symbolism, viewing her work as a medium for conveying absolute truth. She embraced spiritualism and in 1896 co-founded the group De Fem (The Five) with four other women. From 1906 to 1915, she created the series Paintings for the Temple, comprising 193 works executed under the guidance of spiritual entities. Notable among these is the Cycle of Life (November–December 1907), ten monumental tempera paintings whose creative process remains a mystery. After 1912, her work showed greater chromatic freedom and abstraction, as seen in The Swan series. The exhibition also includes later series such as Parsifal, the atom series, and watercolors from 1922 influenced by Rudolf Steiner. Af Klint explicitly stipulated in her will that her works be withheld from public view for 20 years after her death, deeming audiences unready. The show aims to further decode her oeuvre based on extensive testimonies she left behind.