Large Figure Paintings (1907)

Gallery 206

“The paintings were made directly through me, without preliminary drawings and with great force. I had no idea what the images were supposed to depict; nevertheless, I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brushstroke,” Hilma af Klint said about her Large Figure Paintings.

In the first four paintings of this group, whose format is smaller and more vertical than the others, the masculine and the feminine are separated and connected by elements like a spiral or, as in the fourth painting, by a row of human figures, which creates a triangular composition. In that painting, the yellow man on the left represents af Klint, and the woman with a subtle blue cloak on the right, apparently portrays artist Gusten Andersson, who was also part of af Klint’s inner circle of spiritualists. After the fifth painting, the format becomes larger and square, and figuration gives way to abstraction. Masculine and feminine are fused in an evolution that culminates in the image of an altar with a rose in the middle of the cross, like the one af Klint used in her séances. These paintings reflect the Theosophical idea that life consists of a quest for the union of opposing forces.