The Visionary Genius Hilma af Klint: Explore the Spiritual World of the very first Abstract Artist

The artist Hilma af Klint was the true pioneer of abstract art, producing abstract paintings five years before Kandinsky. Find out more in this Hilma af Klint biography. The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint was born on 26 October 1862, at the Karlberg Palace in Solna, Sweden, the naval academy where her father was based. She was the fourth of five children born to Mathilda and Victor af Klint who were both staunch Protestants. Most of her childhood was spent in the Karlberg Palace, but during the summers, the family would move to Adelso, an island in Lake Malaren, near Stockholm. It was here that Hilma's fascination with nature and organic life began.
In 1880 she attended the Technical School, now known as Konstfack, and studied classical portraiture under the supervision of the artist Kerstin Cardon. Around this time, she became a committed vegetarian, usually wore black and began to develop an interest in the spiritual and the occult.
At the age of 20 in 1882, Hilma enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She was one of the first women to do so and spent the next five years studying drawing, portraiture and landscape painting. She graduated with honours and as a result, was awarded a studio in the Academy’s “Atelier Building”, in Stockholm's artist quarter.
In 1896 she joined the Edelweiss Society but left soon after with four other like-minded women artists and founded the “Friday Group”, also known as “The Five”. They met for spiritual meetings, meditation and séances. The medium, Sigrid Hedman, one of the five, led exercises in automatic writing. This was decades before the Surrealists would use automatic drawing to generate their ideas.
In 1904 Hilma af Klint’s work profoundly changed after an otherworldly experience. During a séance, she claimed to have heard a voice telling her to make paintings 'on an astral plane'.
So, in November 1906 at age 44, Hilma af Klint began creating, ‘The Paintings for the Temple,’ which comprised several series of paintings on various themes. The first, preparatory group was called Primordial Chaos and consisted of twenty-six small pictures. They break free entirely from representation, combining geometric shapes such as spirals with dynamic brushstrokes, letters of the alphabet and symbols. It was a conscious decision on her part to keep these works secret, only showing them to a small, very select group of friends.
Hilma af Klint shared an interest in the spiritual with the other pioneers of abstract art including Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian. And like Hilma af Klint many were drawn to Theosophy, which opened a route towards a new world of spiritual reality, rather than merely depicting visual impressions of the world around them.
Had she not kept her abstract work secret she would surely have held the accolade of producing the world’s first abstract paintings. Instead, Kandinsky’s paintings of 1911 would, until recently, come to be recognised as the first abstract works of art.

Hilma af Klint did not have any contact with the modern movements of her time, yet she is now generally considered to be the pioneer of abstract art - her first abstract painting created in 1906, pre-dates Kandinsky’s by five years.

Photo credits
The Hilma af Klint Foundation

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PATREON: I'd like to thank the following patrons whose support in the making of this video is much appreciated: Dee Ann Havely, Deirdre Feely, Denise Berg, Ivan Gilbert Rappaport, Mary Stewart, Nicolae Opris, S. Ryckman, Tatiana Lostorto, Tess N, Tina Valentine, Visnja Zeljeznjak, Linda Frazier, Marnie Coutts, Stein Harald Os, Emily Liss, William Scott Griffiths, Dinny Hinds, Patrick Lefebvre, Philip Levene, Alena Sidorkina, Jeff Smith, Ashok Kanagasundram, Olivia McGoldrick, Rahman Yii, Sarah Hirsch, Kevin Coburn, Stacy Schweigler, Juraj Michálek, Jennifer Ranghelli, Emily and Susan Valliant

[ishastrega]

Her work predates many of the pioneers of the great movements of abstract art and science of the last century. Fascinating. She was all of them before they were themselves.

[randallrohr]

It’s so crazy I’ve never heard of her before. Her work is simply stunning.

[rossbeijing]

I was lucky enough to catch her massive retrospective at the Guggenheim a few years ago. Cosmic communication rendered with thin paint. Very charged, vibrant work that seemed to have been painted yesterday. Truly messages to the future now!

[wisdomfortranscendence]

As an abstract artist who does a lot of automatic spiritual work, this is so interesting. I also only show few my most authentic works, most don’t understand or want to. This has made me feel significantly less alone in my admiration for the true flow and essence of the life of art

[robertjohnburton]

Well presented as this was a difficult subject. The motivation of artists with serious spiritual beliefs can be trivialized, but you did a great job. She was a real Outsider artist.

[theenglishtrainer]

Dear Sir, to say that you are a brilliant narrator is an uderstatement. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and in this occasion for speaking about this unique and interesting artist. I wish I was as talented as her. I also deeply admire Louise Bourgeoise and Jenny Saville among others. Art saved my life. Thank you again.

[nematarot]

Love how I’m constantly discovering women who did it before men, and better than men. Also the, “and they were roommates” trope— classic.

[ruzhili]

"The pictures were painted directly through me, without preliminary drawings and with great power. I had no idea what the pictures would depict and still I worked quickly and surely without changing a single brush-stroke." by Hilma af Klint

[breakfastclosed]

it is absolutely amazing to me, the phenomenon of art movements occurring simultaneously across distance, without seeing and interacting with each other, artists began painting abstractly, surely it is no coincidence, but some kind of divine intervention. it's really amazing.

[sharonjack]

You are an artist's true friend. This is so well-presented. We artists live sometimes, in a world of our own and learning about another artist such as Hilma, is so comforting. Thank you so much!!! USA

[cruzyferreria]

Thank you, I can only imagine how many other female artists work we've yet to discover, leonora Carrington is another one I recently found, and it's exciting to see these beautiful pieces of Art.

[Sheila.F]

My profound gratitude to you; I have heard and read about Hilma several times but this video brought me to tears and I can't explain why.

[samarindo]

this is now my favorite art history channel. THANK U

[imaniflows]

This was great! I saw her exhibit at the Guggenheim a few years ago and went to see it 4 times. Her work, spirituality and life inspire me so much. Thanks for making this.

[beenice]

I never heard of Hilma! Thank you for introducing me to her wonderful lifetime work.

[Littlej]

Thank you so much for this video! This is the first time I heard about Hilma af Klint. You do a great job at giving a well-rounded look at the lives of these artists and how it influenced their artworks.

[solunnne]

Great video! I recently found out about Hilma Af Klint and I love her work. Here in Sweden, the mail stamps feature some of her artworks! Hope to get to see some of her work in a museum someday!

[basilleonardo]

I like that you provide her age under the years of the various events of her life. Very helpful to imagine the stages of her life.

[catec.]

I've been making a lot of art lately. Two people spontaneously mentioned Hilma af Klint to me when they saw my work. Some of the parallels are uncanny. Now I'm utterly fascinated by her and her journey! Thank you for this beautiful and informative video.

[jane]

I remember when I discovered her work, it struck me deeply. I was raving about her to my friends and family. She created art that gives me that feeling which I come by every now and again, of some feature of life, existence, and consciousness that can't well be put into words. I'm 22, depressed, mad at the world and afraid of the lonesomeness of the unkown. Klint's art work makes that "unknown" look comforting and welcoming and beautiful. Maybe this whole paragraph is total bullshit, but maybe it will resonate with someone else