The Mystic Arts of Hilma af Klint
Hilma af Klint, a remarkable woman and an unconventional artist who was “an academically trained but also a spiritualist”. She has created abstract, modern paintings from early 1900s, that has completely transformed the Modern Art as we know it today. Her art is a brilliant combination of spirituality and scientific discoveries that portray an array material dimensions of the physical world and inner space of matters. Her radically abstract painting were far more modern in the 1906 and way ahead its time and that of her contemporaries like Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian. Although her art was extremely private and secretive compared to her then better-known contemporaries whose art was widely exhibited and published. When the world was on the verge of change in political, social and artistic spheres, Hila af Klint’s intellectually and spiritually motivated work brought a paradigmatic movement in the field of abstract and modern art.
While speaking to Ellen on CARVE for 2SER, Sue Cramer and Nicholas Chambers spoke about Hilma af Klint’s artistic journey and described her as “a powerful artist whose beliefs inspired her to create such a dominant body of art that became a medium for her to represent her visions of spirituality”. Her artwork has gained recognition in recent years and has changed the means of perception of conventional Modern Art techniques. Sue mentioned “Hilma was not interested in the race, and she wasn’t situating her works within the trajectory of the arts’ history” and which is why her work although way ahead of her contemporaries, bore great importance. Her courageous work and brevity have stood out as an inspiration for several artists across the globe. Nicholas describes Hima’s work as a fascinating showcase of her spirituality since the beginning of her career. The language of her paintings tends to trade the waters unknown and depicts her courage which was beyond imagination at such an early time. Her work has only been recently discovered as it was her choice to do so because she felt that the world was not ready for the message that her painting was offering. She had requested in her seventies that her work only be published openly until after 20 years of her death. The enthralling usage of dualistic symbols, letters, and words to articulate the “unity of everything” strikes a perfect balance between channelling her spiritual impulses and the scientific approach of the physical parallel world.
Her family kept the works a secret and published them around the 60s, but even then, it took a considerable amount of time for the knowledge to be perceived beyond her family and the adjacent environment in which she had lived. Hilma did not consider her work as an art and which also why she kept them a secret for so many years. It took the world immense time to understand that there are several layers to understand the artistic creations of Hilma af Klint. However, fairly speaking it is very recent that researchers and artists are studying her work and realizing a great contribution to the history of art by her paintings.
The 2018 exhibition of her artistic work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York while breaking the attendance records, brought forward some new information and discoveries of Hilma’s work. Her art goes beyond the visuals and teaches that art is not merely that meets the eyes, it is rather something that goes further our inner selves and embraces spiritual dimensions of the universe.
To witness the magic of Hilma af Klint’s brilliant artwork, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has organized an exhibit of her artwork from 12 June – 19 September 2021.
Visit the website – Hilma af Klint | Art Gallery of NSW for more details.
Instagram – @hilmaafklintofficial
