Hilma af Klint: The Swedish Mystic Who Pioneered Abstract Art Before Kandinsky
Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) embarked on her journey into abstraction in 1906, well ahead of Wassily Kandinsky's initial abstract watercolor in 1910. Born in Solna, she attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1882 and helped establish the spiritualist collective "De Fem" in 1896. Inspired by spiritual guidance, she created 193 "Paintings for the Temple" from 1906 to 1915, featuring notable pieces like "Primordial Chaos" (1906) and "The Ten Largest" (1907). After encounters with Rudolf Steiner in 1908 and 1910, she concealed her art for half a century. Following her mother’s passing in 1920, she relocated to Dornach, Switzerland. Af Klint passed away on October 21, 1944, leaving behind 1,300 artworks sealed for two decades. Her recognition surged with a LACMA exhibition in 1989 and reached new heights with a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2019.
Key facts
- Hilma af Klint was born in Solna, Sweden in 1862 and died in Danderyd in 1944.
- She studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm starting in 1882.
- In 1896, she co-founded the spiritualist group 'De Fem' with four other women.
- She began her abstract 'Paintings for the Temple' in 1906, seven years before Kandinsky's first abstract work.
- She met Rudolf Steiner in 1908 and 1910; he advised her to hide her work for 50 years.
- Her 2019 retrospective at the Guggenheim New York attracted over 600,000 visitors, a museum record.
- She left 1,300 paintings and 26,000 pages of notes sealed for 20 years after her death.
- Her painting 'The Dove No. 1' (1915) appears to depict a double helix structure, prefiguring DNA discovery.
Entities
Artists
- Hilma af Klint
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Vincent van Gogh
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Helena Blavatsky
- Rudolf Steiner
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Robert Delaunay
- Sonia Delaunay
- Piet Mondrian
- Paul Klee
- Rosalind Franklin
- Bertha Valerius
- Anna Cassel
- Cornelia Cederberg
- Sigrid Hedman
- Mathilda Nilsson
- Victor af Klint
- Erik af Klint
- Hermina af Klint
Institutions
- Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts
- LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
- Artribune
Locations
- Solna
- Sweden
- Danderyd
- Stockholm
- Dornach
- Switzerland
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Bilbao
- Berlin
- Monaco