Large-scale canvases measuring 240 by 320 centimeters formed the core of a secret artistic cycle that Hilma af Klint produced between 1906 and 1915. Her complex abstract compositions, which predated many recognized movements in Western art history, remained largely obscured for decades as she believed contemporary society lacked the necessary preparation to comprehend her spiritual visual language.
Early Education and Professional Beginnings
Born in 1862 at Solna Municipality, af Klint displayed early aptitude for botanical drawing and mathematics. She attended the Tekniska skolan, known today as Konstfack, before entering the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1882. Over the following seven years, she mastered portraiture and landscape painting. Upon graduating with honors, she secured a studio in Stockholm’s Ateljébyggnaden. While she maintained a conventional career as a landscape and portrait painter to earn a living, this commercial work remained entirely separate from her private, experimental investigations into form and color.
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Af Klint sought meaning beyond traditional art through her membership in the Edelweiss Society. Within this framework, she established a collective known as The Five alongside Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson. This group engaged in séances and meditations, documenting a system of mystical communication they attributed to entities identified as High Masters. Through these practices, she began developing automatic drawing techniques as early as 1896, shifting her focus toward geometric abstraction and the conceptualization of invisible forces.
The Temple Project and Anthroposophy
Guided by her belief in spiritual direction, af Klint undertook the creation of 196 paintings intended for a conceptual Temple. Her series, The Ten Largest, serves as a prominent example, mapping human development from childhood to old age. Her philosophical outlook evolved through engagements with Theosophy and later, Anthroposophy. She encountered Rudolf Steiner in 1908 and later spent significant periods between 1921 and 1930 at the Goetheanum in Dornach. These interactions deepened her commitment to translating complex metaphysical inquiries into diagrammatic artistic expressions.
Fast facts
- Born: 1862, Solna Municipality
- Died: 1944, Danderyd
- Education: Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (1882-1889)
- Movement: Abstract art
- Key Group: The Five
- Burial site: Galärvarvs Cemetery
- Citizenship: Sweden
Questions readers ask
Why were her works kept hidden?
Af Klint concluded that her abstract work was so groundbreaking that the world was not yet ready to view it, directing that the collection remain unseen until twenty years after her death.
Who were the High Masters?
They were entities from whom af Klint and her group, The Five, believed they received messages and instructions for their spiritual work.
Achievements
- Movement: abstract art
