Before dying, the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (Stockholm, 1862-1944), wrote in her last will and testament that her works should not be exhibited for at least 20 years. Although she exhibited throughout her life, she only showed her figurative paintings and, very occasionally, her abstract paintings which, although pioneering in this form of expression, were never shown in the context of the conventional art world, but rather in the context of the conventional art world. seeks to share them with related spiritual communities, although it is true that it fails to find an enthusiastic audience. In fact, Af Klint created his first abstract paintings in 1906, before Kandinsky, who did not publish his first work until 1911. However, he always thought that his works would not be valued in his time.
“If there is anything that characterizes her work, it is that although she is an artist who began working in the late 19th century and early 20th century, her work does not was recognized only in the 21st century. Partly because the artist herself showed it very little, she considered that it was necessary for a very specific audience to be able to access it and, partly, because it took us time to be able to show as she thought.” Lucía recognizes Agirre, curator of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao after presenting ‘Hilma af Klint’, the exhibition which gives the Swedish artist the recognition she has always deserved.
Although he did not show his works to the art world, Af Klint took care to save and classify them for the future. He devoted nearly a decade to the creation of his work, working in his early years with traditional themes and automatic drawings, then giving shape to his most notable series, such as “Paintings for the Temple”, “Perceval » or his latest watercolors. All of them will be available in the exhibition at the Bilbao Art Gallery, sponsored by Iberdrola and with the collaboration of the Hilma af Klint Foundation. “This exhibition will present to us all the elements which are part of the work of Hilma Af Klint, it will make us discover her philosophy, her ideas on theosophy, anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism. Also his ideas on art and the evolution of his work over six decades,” explains Agirre.
Born into a noble family thanks to her military merits, Hilma af Klint had the privilege of access to education and training. Beyond learning within her family, she received traditional artistic training at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, which was one of the first institutions to allow women to draw from a model. alive. Like many people of his time, Af Klint does not see a confrontation between the spiritual and scientific worlds, quite the contrary, because both serve to reach a higher truth. This interest of the artist made her participate in spiritualism sessions, common at the time, although hated by traditional religions. In fact, he shows his “temple paintings” to almost no one, although among the select group of people who have entered his Stockholm studio to view his works is one of his most admired figures, Rudolph Steiner , leader of the German Theosophical Society.
In 1896, Hilma af Klint met four other women Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman and Mathilda Nilsson to found the group “The Five” (De Fem). These women meet regularly to organize spiritual sessions, contact the afterlife and channel their experiences through writing and automatic drawings. Hilma af Klint believes that “The Five” received a commission from the spirits to create the “Temple Paintings”, and in 1906 she began work on the first series of this cycle, called WU/Pink, where the letter W represents matter and U represents spirit, WU being duality. The rose is linked to Rosicrucianism, a secret order linked to the esoteric knowledge of alchemists founded in the 17th century by Christians opposed to the rigid dogma of the Church of their time. The Pink Cross or Rose Cross is its main emblem, and it is on an altar with a rose in the middle of a cross that Af Klint and his entourage practice sessions.
Thus, in “Paintings for the Temple”, the artist creates a total of 193 works divided into different series, between paintings and drawings, leaving behind what she had formally learned to concentrate on a new art linked to spiritualism and to other systems of thought such as Rosicrucianism, theosophy or the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner. “Designed to be installed in a helical temple that would never be realized, the “Temple Paintings” explore what remains hidden to the naked eye, something that was of interest to both the scientific and spiritual movements of the time, including Hilma af Klint and others. modern artists,” they collect at the museum.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao will host the visit of the work of the artist Hilma af Klint until February 2, 2025 and activities will be carried out such as conferences, creative sessions, musical tours and the screening of “Au- beyond the visible”, on December 5, a documentary directed by Halina Dyrschka in 2019 which discovers the journey of Hilma af Klint as a pioneer of abstraction.
