The Artists

Hilma af Klint
The world isn't ready

Hilma af Klint, The Artists
Portrait of Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint’s last wish was that her life’s work, over 1000 drawings and paintings, be hidden for 20 years after her death. The world wasn’t ready for her work. Af Klint died in 1944, but it wasn’t until 1987 that Maurice Tuchman brought her work into the light in a groundbreaking exhibition titled “The Spiritual in Art” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. So what was af Klint hiding?

No less than a schematic for the spiritual healing of the human race, gifted to her by the High Masters, interdimensional beings, and translated to her through the seances she conducted as a medium and clairvoyant. Klint was a member of a coven, a group of women who called themselves The Five, who documented their communications with the High Masters through automatic drawing and painting.

Klint’s work is startlingly contemporary. She beat Kandinsky to the punch, and is considered the first ever purely abstract artist. But while abstract, her work is as much a recipe as it is an art object. Many pieces embed sigils, symbols intended to trigger psychic insights, and depict metaphors of balance, dualism, and connection. Klint did not consider her work abstract, she aimed to create the blueprints of truth.

Reed Enger, "Hilma af Klint, The world isn't ready," in Obelisk Art History, Published October 06, 2015; last modified November 06, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/hilma-af-klint/.

Hilma af Klint was a Swedish Woman Artist and Outsider Artist born on October 26, 1862. af Klint contributed to the Early Modernist and Esoteric movements and died on October 21, 1944.

Childhood Group IV, Hilma af Klint

Childhood Group IV 1907

Group I, No. 7, Primordial Chaos, Hilma af Klint

Group I, No. 7, Primordial Chaos 1906 – 1907

Group IV, No. 3. The Ten Largest, Youth, Hilma af Klint

Group IV, No. 3. The Ten Largest, Youth 1907

Group IV, No. 7, The Ten Largest, Adulthood, Hilma af Klint

Group IV, No. 7, The Ten Largest, Adulthood 1907

The Large Figure Paintings, No. 5 Group 3, Hilma af Klint

The Large Figure Paintings, No. 5 Group 3 1907

Evolution, No. 15, Group IV, The Seven-pointed Stars, Hilma af Klint

Evolution, No. 15, Group IV, The Seven-pointed Stars 1908

The Seven-Pointed Star No. 1, Hilma af Klint

The Seven-Pointed Star No. 1 1908

Altarpiece No. 1 Group X, Hilma af Klint

Altarpiece No. 1 Group X 1915

Doves No. 2, Hilma af Klint

Doves No. 2 1915

Group IX, No. 3, The Dove, Hilma af Klint

Group IX, No. 3, The Dove 1915

Group IX/SUW, No. 17. The Swan, No. 17, Hilma af Klint

Group IX/SUW, No. 17. The Swan, No. 17 1914 – 1915

Group IX/SUW No. 8, The Swan, No. 8, Hilma af Klint

Group IX/SUW No. 8, The Swan, No. 8 1915

Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 1, Hilma af Klint

Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 1 1915

Group IX/SUW No. 12, The Swan No. 12, Hilma af Klint

Group IX/SUW No. 12, The Swan No. 12 1915

Group IX/UW No. 25, The Dove, No. 1, Hilma af Klint

Group IX/UW No. 25, The Dove, No. 1 1915

Tree of Knowledge No. 5, Hilma af Klint

Tree of Knowledge No. 5 1913 – 1915

Buddhas Standpoint in the Earthly Life No. 3, Hilma af Klint

Buddhas Standpoint in the Earthly Life No. 3 1920

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