Visionary: On Hilma Af Klint and the Spirit of Her Time

At the turn of the twentieth century, the spiritual and social movements Theosophy and later Anthroposophy became a strong source of inspiration for the pioneers of modernism and abstract art: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich – and Hilma af Klint.

In 1906 the Swedish artist began painting her first abstract series, Primordial Chaos, featuring blue, green and yellow geometrical shapes and spirals. Her main work, Paintings for the Temple, expresses what she calls the higher truth: unity beyond duality and the material world and mankind’s spiritual evolution. What was the zeitgeist that inspired such an eruption in art?

This anthology, based on a seminar held at the Guggenheim museum at the opening of their acclaimed exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future in October 2018, elaborates on this cultural phenomenon.

About the Editors

Kurt Almqvist is President of the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit, where Louise Belfrage is a project manager.

About the Contributors

Daniel Birnbaum is the fomer Director of the Moderna Museet. Julia Voss is a Fellow at Lichtenberg-Kolleg, the Göttingen Institute of Advanced Studies. Tracey Bashkoff is Senior Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Isaac Lubelsky is Academic coordinator of genocide studies and India studies, Israeli Open University.

Linda Dalrymple Henderson is Professor in Art History, University of Texas at Austin. Marco Pasi is Associate professor in the History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents, University of Amsterdam.