Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was a Swedish artist whose large abstract paintings drew on spiritualism, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. She created many of her best-known works before abstract art became publicly prominent.

The Paintings for the Temple: A series of 193 paintings af Klint made between 1906 and 1915 for a projected spiritual temple. This ambitious cycle contains many of her best-known abstractions and organizes them around spiritual development.
Automatic drawing: A practice of making marks with limited conscious control, associated with spiritualism and later Surrealism. Af Klint used guided, automatic methods to produce forms she understood as received rather than invented.
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts: A Swedish art institution in Stockholm that provided formal training to generations of artists. Af Klint studied there and developed the technical skills behind her conventional paintings.
Abstract art: Art that does not aim to depict recognizable objects or scenes directly. Af Klint’s paintings are central to debates about abstraction’s beginnings and purposes.
The Ten Largest: Ten monumental paintings depicting stages of human life, created by af Klint in 1907. Their vivid colors and biomorphic forms show the scale and visual ambition of her temple project.
Spiritualism: A religious movement based on the belief that communication with the spirits of the dead is possible. Séances and spirit communication shaped the circumstances in which af Klint began her abstract work.
The Five: A group of Swedish women artists who held spiritualist meetings and made art together in the late nineteenth century. Af Klint’s participation in the group connected artistic collaboration with séances and spiritual practice.
Posthumous publication: The release of an artist’s work or writings after the artist’s death. Af Klint stipulated that much of her abstract work remain unseen for twenty years after her death.
The Swan: A sequence of paintings by af Klint using swans to explore duality and union. Its changing forms make her spiritual interest in opposing forces especially visible.
Theosophy: A modern religious movement seeking universal spiritual truths through comparative religion, philosophy, and occult study. Theosophical ideas about hidden realities and spiritual evolution informed af Klint’s symbols and imagery.

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