Art in NYC: Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum presents Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future; on view until April 23, 2019

Hilma af Klint, Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood, 1907 from untitled series; tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 315 x 235 cm The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm / Photo: Albin Dahlström, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm

The Guggenheim Museum in New York City presents an extensive expose of works by Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. Stunning and mysterious, af Klint’s large and small paintings of abstract forms and shapes were created years before Abstract art took its place in the hearts and minds of artists and the public.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, af Klint started developing her own expressive language from 1906. Stripped bare from imagery, her works were way ahead of the established giants of Abstractionism like Kandinsky, Mondrian or Malevich. Yet af Klint’s art remained unknown to the public partly due to her belief that the world was not ready for her art and in accordance with her wish to show her works 20 years after her death.

Many of af Klint’s paintings were inspired by and served as a medium to express the spiritual beliefs which emerged from occult teachings and Theosophy. The cycle of the large bright-colored canvases at the entrance of the exhibition was conceived as The Paintings for the Temple. The lively palette of pastel colors with pink symbolizing femininity, yellow for masculinity, and gentle blue for the universal unity express the unseen world channeled through the art. Walk up the spiraling hall of the museum to absorb the art created a century ago in all its untouched novelty.

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Hilma af Klint Group I, Primordial Chaos, No. 16, 1906-1907 from The WU/Rose Series,Oil on canvas, 53 x 37 cm The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm / Photo: Albin Dahlström, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Hilma af Klint was born in 1862 in Stockholm. From an early age, she showed interest in mathematics, botany, and art. She graduated with honors from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where she learned portraiture and landscape paintings and started her career as a painter in figurative, landscape, and botanical objects.

At the turn of the 20th century, mysticism was gaining a lot of interest among the artists. That coupled with the family tragedy of her sister’s death drew af Klint to the occult teachings. She developed close bonds with the group of female artists ‘The Five’ who advocated automatic paintings and other ways of spiritual expression through the art.

In 1906, af Klint started to work on the series ‘The Paintings for the Temple’. She produced vividly colored large canvases of purely abstract forms. Ten extremely large works were made around 1907 with many others grouped in sub-series. In total there were about 193 pieces. af Klint intended to house the cycle in a spiral temple but that never materialized in her lifetime. The Frank Lloyd Wright design of Guggenheim Museum, “a temple of spirit” in the architect’s words, is a pretty close approximation for af Klint’s vision for her temple.

Organized in chronological order, this exhibition moves on to other works also grouped by series and inspired by deeply mystical ideas. Primordial Chaos, The Swan, Altarpieces are just a few of the series featured at the museum. The curators from the Guggenheim museum cooperated closely with the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm in selecting more than 170 artworks from its vast collection.

The prodigiousness of the artist, the wealth of themes, the depth of exploration, and the fact that this trove of art was kept secret and hidden from the public are perplexing. To a large extend af Klint’s art if not redefines then expands the depth and breadth of art history. Browse the paintings, contemplate the artist’s intent, and congratulate yourself for getting close to the unfamiliar.