Stealing from the Best: Hilma af Klint
/A couple of weeks ago I learned of an incredible artist for the first time: Hilma af Klint, born in Sweden in 1862. An odd duck, she pioneered abstract painting long before Kandinsky and those guys appeared on the scene.
Part of this is her fault — she was a spiritualist, creating most of her work 1906–1920 at the behest of her spirit guides, and stipulated that her paintings were not to be exhibited until 20 years after her death. They were literally locked away in boxes until 1964, and it was not until the 80s that her work was exhibited in any major way.
Now her major works are on display at the Guggenheim, and she’s filtering into the art world’s consciousness.
The best place to see her paintings is over at the Hilma af Klint Foundation.
Let’s take a look at her stuff.
Sjustjärnan, Group V, No. 14, 1908
Altarpiece, Group X, No. 1, 1915
Group IX/SUW No. 12, The Swan No. 12, 1915
Aren’t these amazing?
Many of her works are very large paintings made for a chapel which her spirit guides instructed her to build. (It was never built.)
So what can we steal from Hilma?
her use of geometric figures: circles, arcs, pyramids, squares, radiating lines
her use of color, none of which is left pure or ‘unstained’
her sense of distance, i.e., she hints at perspective without going there
her sense of balance and proportion
her refusal to explain anything to you
Look at this one:
Untitled, 1924
It’s one of her later, smaller works, only 13.5 x 9.5 inches. Notice how she washes the paper with watercolor, creating a very liquid surface which is interrupted by a sharply etched line — which is nonetheless encroached upon by the liquid. Did she use a masking fluid, or was her hand steady enough to swoosh both sides of that zen ellipse without assistance?
See the three blank spots in the corners? Is this where she taped her paper to the board, or are they deliberately left blank?
And of course our human brains want to create meaning from what we see, so is this a necklace? An eclipse? A portal? All of the above? None of the above? The mystery is beautiful.
An amazing artist, far ahead of her time and one of the best. Learn from her.
