Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint
Portrait photo by an unknown photographer, c. 1900 or earlier
Born	October 26, 1862 Karlberg Palace
Died	October 21, 1944 (1944-10-22) (aged 81) Danderyd
Nationality	Swedish
Education	Tekniska skolan, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Known for	Painting
Movement	naturalism, abstract art

Hilma af Klint (October 26, 1862 – October 21, 1944) was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings were amongst the first abstract art. A considerable body of her abstract work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky. She belonged to a group called "The Five", a circle of women who shared her belief in the importance of trying to make contact with the so-called 'High Masters' - often by way of séances. Her paintings, which sometimes resemble diagrams, were a visual representation of complex spiritual ideas.

The fourth child of Captain Victor af Klint, a Swedish naval commander, and Mathilda af Klint (née Sonntag), Hilma af Klint spent summers with her family at their farm Hanmora on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren. In these idyllic surroundings Hilma came into contact with nature at an early stage in her life and this deep association with natural forms was to be an inspiration in her work. From her father she adopted an interest in mathematics.

In 1880 her younger sister Hermina died and it was at this time that the spiritual dimension of her life began to develop.

She showed an early ability in visual art and after the family moved to Stockholm she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts for five years during which time she learned portraiture and landscape painting. Here she met Anna Cassel, the first of the four women with whom she later worked in "The Five" (de Fem), a group of artists who shared her ideas. She graduated in 1887 and began working in Stockholm, gaining recognition for her landscapes, botanical drawings, and portraits. Her more conventional painting became the source of her financial income while the 'life's work' remained a quite separate practice.

The project on which "The Five" were engaged involved, in 1892, recording in a book a completely new system of mystical thought in the form of messages from higher spirits. One, Gregor, spoke thus: "all the knowledge that is not of the senses, not of the intellect, not of the heart but is the property that exclusively belongs to the deepest aspect of your being...the knowledge of your spirit".

Hilma af Klint's work ran parallel to the development of abstract art by other artists such as Mondrian, Malevich and Kandinsky who were, like af Klint, inspired by the Theosophical Movement founded by Madame Blavatsky. Af Klint's work can be understood in the wider context of the modernist search for new forms in artistic, spiritual, political and scientific systems at the beginnings of the 20th century.