Who is Hilma af Klint?

Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim

Birch. From the series "On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees", painted 1922.

No. 7 Adulthood from the series “The Ten Largest” painted in 1907.

Hilma af Kilnt in her studio

Art History Must Be Rewritten

Four years before Wassily Kandinsky painted his first abstract painting, Swedish artist Hilma af Klint painted hers. She is the pioneer and the original abstract painter. You won’t however see this written in our art history books. But the truth is still the truth, regardless of whether the galleries of the world will acknowledge it. So, who is Hilma af Klint and why should we rewrite history to include her?

I could write her story like most posts and tell you about her family life, mention that she was born in 1862 and talk about how she got started, but let’s skip this and get to the interesting parts about her life.

First of all, she was a woman working in a man’s world…. a woman’s role at the time was to marry and make a home. But Hilma, who did fall in love, refused marriage as she knew that that would be the end of her freedom to be able to concentrate on art. That is a sacrifice I’m sure, that not many people would make (female or male) even today. In a world that longs for connection… Hilma was connecting to something else, something much bigger.

This is where we reach the second interesting point. Hilma was very spiritual, praying and attending seances daily. This was actually not at all unusual for the time….  but I have found when researching for this post, that sometimes I get the idea that people are trying to paint her (no pun intended) as a witch.  Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but it seems to be the main focus of all the articles I read, as opposed to the fact that she is literally the painter of the FIRST known abstract art pieces (although MOMA in New York may disagree- but let’s face it, they would say that, considering they hold the paintings of what THEY would call the first abstract artists).

Anyway, yes, she did attend seances and even started a spiritual group known as ‘The Five’. Where this is truly important, is that Hilma suggests in the countless notebooks she left behind about her work, that she painted in an almost possessed way… ok, they are my words not hers and I just wanted to join in the crazy witch hype for a minute lol. Hilma does however reference that the ‘High Masters’ spirits flowed through her in a way, helping her produce every brush stroke she painted in a series known as ‘The Temple’, in a way where she felt confident not to second guess her work….Crikey, I wish I didn’t second guess mine.

I don’t imagine her head was spinning around in an Exorcist type manner as she painted, but more I imagine she created her work in a completely focussed way, with a mind of vision, stillness and calm… a mind that some people are lucky enough to find through things like religion, meditation and music. I don’t know how many of you have reached this state, but I’m wishing that I could pop in a link for a ‘High Master Flow Download’, so we could all get a little more focused and confident ;).  

As well as being spiritual, Hilma appears to be equally as interested in science, mathematics and nature. In some of her work, she painted the invisible- radio waves, atoms and x-rays for instance. And what personally blows my mind, is how beautiful all these paintings are. I mean, I don’t know about you, but ‘pretty’ and ‘radio wave’ are not two things I generally think of in the same sentence.

Looking at her work in 2021, the colour pallets honestly feels so contemporary, I mean, where can I grab an original for my house? Her ‘The Ten Largest’ series is my absolute fav. It’s based on the human life span, and I so badly want to own the piece ‘No. 7, Adulthood’… although I would need to raise the ceiling of my house to accommodate the 10 feet by 7 feet (315cm x 235cm to be precise) size of the piece :/.

I want to end the post with what I find probably the most interesting about her and her art work. Not only did she produce over 1200 paintings in her life time, but she also kept many of them secret. They were hidden away, stored with a special symbol on them and under the instruction that her nephew, who was bequeathed them, should only open them 20 years after her death.

It appears she knew at the time that her work would not be appreciated during her lifetime, and had hoped that 1960s may have been kinder to her and her art. Unfortunately in 2021, it is my personal opinion, that she STILL isn’t being appreciated as much as she should be…. and we are STILL waiting for art history to be rewritten and for Hilma af Klint to be awarded her rightful place as the first abstract artist.

Hilma died in 1944 at age 81, the same year as some much more famous abstract artists, after complications arising from a tram accident.

Hilma af Klint is honoured on Bodil’s first set of stickers. If you think she’s as amazing and interesting as we do, purchase a pack and share the love.

If you want to see her work in person (as I know I will be doing), the Art Gallery of New South Wales is holding the first ever Asia Pacific Hilma af Klint exhibition, starting 12th June, 2021. So excited!

Hope you enjoyed learning a bit about this legend!