Sometimes it happens that history has to be rewritten. In the case of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, it is above all the art history of abstract painting. It was not until the 1980s that the art world became aware that it was not Wassily Kandinsky who painted the first abstract painting, but af Klint several years before him. And likewise, she created large-format paintings in bright colors as early as the beginning of the 20th century, as pop artist Andy Warhol did not until some fifty years later. In addition, she is considered a pioneer of mystical art. The fate of Hilma af Klint once again reveals the male influence of art history.
Hilma af Klint grew up in a wealthy, noble family. Her father, a naval officer, encouraged her painterly talent early on and enabled her to study at the Royal Academy of Liberal Arts in Stockholm. In accordance with her training, she initially created conventional landscape paintings and portraits. In addition to painting, af Klint showed a spiritual and theological interest as a teenager, which was intensified by the early death of her sister. She participated in séances, acted as a medium, and joined Rudolf Steiner's Theosophical Society, which was nothing unusual in circles of artists and intellectuals at the time.
The painter was in her mid-forties when she broke away from her conservative, naturalistic way of painting at the beginning of the 20th century and let the spiritualistic experiences flow into her new works as a source of inspiration. On this she noted, "What I needed was courage. And I found it through the influence of the spiritual world, which gave me rare and wonderful instructions." She was convinced that the paintings had been painted right through her. It was also the time when the development of relativity and quantum physics were to shake people's concept of reality. These new findings also broke their way into af Klint's works, as can be seen from the title of her "Atom" series. The spiritual, invisible world should become visible in her pictures.
The explosive power of the images was certainly aware of the artist. She did not exhibit the modern works and decreed that they should not be shown publicly until twenty years after her death, assuming that her contemporaries would not be able to grasp the full significance of her work. Her assessment was confirmed in that it would take until the 21st century for her work to be more adequately appreciated. Hilma af Klint was not only a loner artistically, but this did not seem to make her unhappy. In one of her numerous notebooks she recorded: "There is such a force flowing in me that I must go forward. Marriage and family happiness are not made for me." In 1944, she died as a result of a traffic accident with a streetcar.
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.jpg "Untitled No. 1 from a Series of Altar Paintings by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Buddha")
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.jpg "Group IXSUW, No. 1, The Swan, No. 1 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IV, No. 2. The Ten Largest, Childhood by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Tree of Knowledge, No. 5, 1915 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX/SUW, No. 1, The Swan, No. 1 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IXUW, No. 25, The Dove, No. 1 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Untitled No. 22, 1914-15 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood, Group IV, 1907 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IXSUW, The Swan, No. 17 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Evolution, No. 15, Group IV, The Seven-pointed Stars by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group X, No. 2, Altarpiece by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group X, No. 3, Altarpiece by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group X, No. 1, Altarpiece by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Ten Largest, Childhood, No.1, Group IV, 1907 by Hilma af Klint")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1455434).jpg "Group X, No. 3, Altarpiece by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX SUW, The Swan No. 7 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Large Figure Paintings, No. 5, Group III, The Key to All Works to Date, The WURose Series, 1907 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IV, No. 2. The Ten Largest, Childhood by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Large Figure Paintings, No. 5, Group III, The Key to All Works to Date, The WU/Rose Series by Hilma af Klint")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1451272).jpg "Group IX/UW, No. 25, The Dove, No. 1 by Hilma af Klint")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1451272).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1452551).jpg "Group V, The Seven-Pointed Star, No. 1 (Seven-Pointed Star Series) by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Current Standpoint of the Mahatmas by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IXSUW, The Swan, No. 12, 1915 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group I, No. 7. Primordial Chaos, 1906-1907 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX/SUW, The Swan No. 9 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IXSUW, No. 8, The Swan, No. 8 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group V, The Seven-Pointed Star, No. 1 (Seven-Pointed Star Series) by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group I, Primordial Chaos, No. 16, from The Rose Series by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Evolution, No. 15, Group IV, The Seven-pointed Stars by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group I, No. 7. Primordial Chaos by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Ten Largest, No. 7., Adulthood, Group IV by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Tree of Knowledge, No. 5 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group I, Primordial Chaos, No. 16, from The WURose Series by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Current Standpoint of the Mahatmas by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees by Hilma af Klint")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1455343).jpg "Self-Portrait, c.1890 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 12 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX SUW, The Swan No. 7 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Swan, No. 1, Group IX SUW by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 17 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group X, No. 2, Altarpiece by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Ten Largest, Childhood, No.1, Group IV by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Buddha")
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.jpg "Group IX SUW, The Swan No. 9, 1915 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "Group IX/SUW, No. 8, The Swan, No. 8 by Hilma af Klint")
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.jpg "The Swan, No. 1, Group IX SUW by Hilma af Klint")
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