Four years ago, I read an article about Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944) in a Swiss magazine by the Swiss director of Serpentine Galleries, London. It was written on the occasion of an exposition (see here a video about it: “Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen – Serpentine Galleries“).
At that time, I felt touched by her images inspired by occult experiences, and so I did some research on Hilma on the web. I was moved by her experience of the non-recognition and the non-reception by her contemporaries of her grand contribution to beauty and to unveiling doors into the subtle world. Together with some friends, she experienced inner guidance and followed it. She was inspired by H.P. Blavatsky and Rudolph Steiner. She met him, but he too, did not recognize the sublime depth and greatness of her work; he could not interpret her paintings (here a video of a theosophical researcher).
Others also did not see her qualities and contributions to modern art and to life. Hilma created a grand work of about 1300 paintings, partly of very great size, and many drawings – it was never shown during her lifetime. She felt that the time was not yet ripe, and thus, in her will she decided that her work shall not be shown until at least twenty years after her death. Patience beyond the physical.
Some weeks ago, a friend from Munich told me about Hilma and asked me if I knew her – and so memories came back. My friend had just seen a German TV report about a new book and three times seen a movie on Hilma in a cinema in Munich.
It took 40 more years before the international recognition of her work started with a traveling exposition starting in Los Angeles in 1985. Many more expositions in famous museums followed. In 2019 there was even an exposition in the Guggenheim Museum, New York.
You now find a lot about her life and work on the web. You can see many of her pictures, in Wikimedia or Wikiart on Pinterest and elsewhere. You can discover about her on the website of the Swedish Hilma af Klint Foundation. Now, she has been discovered and her relevance for modern art researched and the difficult role of women in art reflected.
Still today, time might not yet be ripe to discover the relevance of present day contributions of esoteric and occult dimensions to beauty, beyond the fanfares of the art business.
