Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future is on exhibit at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, through April 23, 2019.
The abstract paintings of Hilma af Klint were way ahead of their time. The Swedish artist created her groundbreaking paintings over 100 years ago, but she kept them mostly private. She rarely exhibited them and, convinced the world was not yet ready to understand her work, stipulated that it not be shown for twenty years following her death. This survey of Hilma af Klint’s work at the Guggenheim is the first major solo exhibition in the United States devoted to the artist.
Today, her works look like they could have been painted yesterday. But in 1906, the world was not ready for her level of abstract art. At the time she made these works, the art world was generally dismissive of work made by women, and many critics did not take abstract art seriously.
The Swan, No. 1, Group IX/SUW
Hilma af Klint was born in Stockholm in 1862 and studied at the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with honors in 1887. She soon established herself as a respected painter in Stockholm.
Hilma af Klint, circa 1901 or earlier.
In 1880 her younger sister Hermina died, and it was at this time that the spiritual dimension of her life began to develop. Her interest in abstraction and symbolism came from Hilma af Klint's involvement in spiritism, very much in vogue at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century—especially in literary and artistic circles—as people sought to reconcile long-held religious beliefs with scientific advances and a new awareness of the global plurality of religions. The works of Hilma af Klint are mainly spiritual, and her artistic work is a consequence of this—they were unlike anything that had been seen before: bold, colorful, and untethered from any recognizable references to the physical world.
The press coverage for this exhibition has been overwhelming. “These paintings are a revelation, and like nothing that came before them” said The Economist about af Klint’s art. The New York Times art critic was equally glowing: “If you like to hallucinate but disdain the requisite stimulants, spend some time in the Guggenheim Museum’s staggering exhibition.”
So, what is it that makes these paintings so special?
In 1906, after 20 years of artistic works, and at the age of 44, Hilma af Klint painted her first series of abstract paintings.
Group IX - The Dove
The work for the Temple ran between 1906 and 1915, carried out in two phases with an interruption between 1908 and 1912. As Hilma af Klint discovered her new form of visual expression, she developed a new artistic language. Her painting became more autonomous and more intentional. The spiritual would however continue being the main source of creativity throughout the rest of her life.
Af Klint’s first major group of largely nonobjective work, The Paintings for the Temple, grew directly out of those belief systems. Produced between 1906 and 1915, the paintings were generated in part through af Klint’s spiritualist practice as a medium and reflect an effort to articulate mystical views of reality.
The Dove No. 1, 1915, Group IX/UW, No. 25
She imagined installing these works in a spiral temple, though this plan never came to fruition. (However, since the Guggenheim Museum is—in a sense—a ‘spiral temple’, her wish eventually came true.)
In the years after she completed The Paintings for the Temple, af Klint continued to push the bounds of her new abstract vocabulary, as she experimented with form, theme, and seriality, creating some of her most incisive work.
Altarpiece nr 1, Group 10, 1907
Svanen (The Swan), No. 17, Group 9, Series SUW, October 1914 – March 1915. This work was never exhibited during af Klint's lifetime.
Hilma af Klint never dared to show her abstract work to her contemporaries. She drew the conclusion that her time was not yet ready to understand them. More than 1200 paintings and drawings were carefully stored away in her atelier, waiting for the future.
Hilma af Klint died in 1944, nearly 82 years old, in the aftermath of a traffic accident.
Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, with the cooperation of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm. The exhibition runs from October 12, 2018 to April 23, 2019.
Addendum: Hilma Af Klint: Paintings for the Future, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition, was the most-visited exhibition in the museum’s 60-year history. The show was attended by over 600,000 visitors.