Hilma af Klint

About Hilma af Klint

Af Klint trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and her abstract work grew out of spiritualism. With four other women, as The Five, she held séances, and she saw her cycle “The Paintings for the Temple” (1906–1915) as a commission from spiritual guides. She asked that it not be shown until twenty years after her death.

Most works here belong to that cycle. The four from “The Ten Largest”, each over three metres tall, trace a human life through childhood, youth and adulthood in pastel spirals and flower-like forms. “The Swan” works with pairs of opposites, black against white. “Primordial Chaos” is the earliest series, and the Altarpieces close the cycle. In sizes A4 to A0, af Klint’s paintings are made to order in Berlin as giclée prints with pigment inks, on matte 210 g/m² fine art paper or 400 g/m² cotton canvas.