Spiritual Drawings, The Five (1896–1908)

Just like many of her contemporaries, Hilma af Klint believed that spiritual and scientific worldviews were not antithetical but an extension of one another. Each seek to attain a higher truth and reveal imperceptible forces. Af Klint’s interest in the intangible soon led her to participate in séances, which were common at that time despite being questioned by established religions.

In 1896, af Klint and four other women (Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, Mathilda Nilsson) formed a group called The Five. These women would meet regularly to communicate with spiritual guides. Hedman, the group’s leader, would channel these spirits in a trance state, but the group would also receive messages from them through automatic drawings and writing. Like af Klint, Cassel and Cederberg were trained artists, and at different points, they all engaged in automatic drawing, ceding control of their hands and doing away with the traditional draughtsmanship they had been taught.