Hilma af Klint’s ‘The Ten Largest’ installed in the highlight space. /Busan Museum of Contemporary Art
In 1907, a woman painted large
circles and spirals on canvas—forms that would now be recognized as abstract
art. Yet, her name remained absent from the 20th-century art historical canon
for decades. Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), the Swedish artist whose work long
awaited a “timely summoning,” has finally come into full view through her first
large-scale touring exhibition in Asia.
The Busan Museum of Contemporary
Art, in collaboration with the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, opened the
exhibition 《Hilma af Klint: A Timely Summoning》 on
July 19. Devoted to depicting the “invisible world,” af Klint’s works are
presented here through 139 pieces, including major series, drawings, notebooks,
and archival materials that trace the arc of her life and thought. The
exhibition runs until October 26.
Hidden Time, Sealed Paintings
By the mid-1910s, af Klint had
already produced hundreds of non-figurative works. Yet, convinced that her
contemporaries would not understand them, she left behind explicit
instructions: “Do not show my paintings for 20 years after my death.” Over
1,300 works and 26,000 pages of notes were locked away in her nephew’s attic,
unseen until a 1986 group show in Los Angeles. Even then, she received little
attention. It wasn’t until the 21st century that her work began to receive the
recognition it deserved. Major retrospectives at the Moderna Museet in
Stockholm (2013) and the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2018) drew hundreds of
thousands of visitors and forced a rewriting of modern art history.
〈No. 7,
Adulthood, Group IV〉, 1907, from ‘The Ten Largest’. tempera
on paper mounted on canvas, 315×235 cm. /Busan Museum of Contemporary Art
The First to Paint the Invisible?
Five years before Kandinsky’s
famed 1911 abstract work, af Klint had already created large-scale compositions
devoid of traditional form—yet filled with symbols, symmetry, and hidden order.
She didn’t see them as mere artworks, but as transcriptions of messages
received from a higher realm.
Living at the intersection of
mysticism and rationality in early 20th-century Europe, she immersed herself in
Theosophy—a spiritual movement that sought to uncover the unseen dimensions of
reality. Her art became a visual language through which she explored profound
existential questions.
〈No. 1, Group X, Altarpiece〉, 1915,
237.5×179.5 cm. /Busan Museum of Contemporary ArtHer process was not simply an
aesthetic pursuit. “I was instructed by a higher order,” she once wrote. Her
paintings were not images, but revelations. Ironically, Rudolf Steiner—the very
Theosophist she admired—dismissed her methods as inappropriate and out of step
with her era. The world, it seemed, was not ready.
Monumental Scale, Meticulous
Order
The highlight of the exhibition
is ‘The Ten Largest’—a series of ten massive tempera paintings, each
over 3 meters high, which symbolize the four stages of human life: childhood,
youth, adulthood, and old age. Swirling forms, vibrant color fields,
symmetrical structures, and recurring symbols coalesce into a cohesive visual
symphony. Af Klint completed the entire series in just two months. Far from a
formal experiment, these paintings form a spiritual narrative—a cosmology
rendered through form.
How Should We Speak of Hilma?
This exhibition refuses to reduce
af Klint to the title of “the first abstract artist.” Instead, it follows the
spiritual and philosophical structures that underlie her work—whether in ‘Paintings
for the Temple’, ‘The Atom’, or her many ‘Untitled’ drawings. Her
work embodies not only a metaphysical vision but also a feminist gesture: the
creation of a symbolic, collaborative space, as seen in her spiritual group
“The Five.”
In her final years, af Klint
returned to botanical studies. But this was not a retreat into the past; it
served to complete the trajectory of a life-long inquiry—a circular return that
closed her artistic arc.
힐마 아프 클린트(Hilma af Klint, 1862~1944)
Hilma af Klint was among the rare
women of her time to receive formal training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
in Stockholm. She began her career painting natural subjects—plants, animals,
portraits, and landscapes—but gradually shifted her focus toward the invisible.
Deeply engaged with Theosophy, she believed her art to be a conduit for
spiritual messages and cosmic order.
Convinced that her time was not ready for
such visions, she instructed that her work remain unseen for two decades after
her death. It was not until the 21st century that af Klint was finally
recognized as a pioneering figure—reshaping our understanding of the origins of
abstract art.
