Hilma af Klint
10.18.2024 - 02.02.2025
In 1906, Hilma af Klint (b. Stockholm 1862; d. 1944) embarked upon the most ambitious, ground-breaking project of her career, the Paintings for the Temple. Over nearly a decade, she created 193 paintings and drawings, many of which were like little that came before. Bold, colorful, and often untethered from references to the visible world, these works explore forces and structures that af Klint believed were hidden to the eyes. In making these works, af Klint set aside the conventions of the Swedish academic tradition, and instead looked to the scientific and the spiritual currents of her day. Incorporating ideas and imagery from these two areas, while forging her own unique artistic vocabulary, af Klint established herself a pioneer in representing the invisible.
As af Klint made her way as an artist, she was living through profound social changes, including women’s rights movements. Despite the limitations placed on women during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, af Klint was able to study at Royal Academy of Fine Arts and went on to exhibit her more traditional figurative works, but she also had to struggle to devote herself freely to art. In a context where women artists were commonly thought to be capable only of copying, not innovating, she rarely presented her more radical, abstract art publicly and struggled to find an audience who appreciated it. Undeterred, she painstakingly edited, saved, and catalogued her work so it would be preserved for future audiences, and stipulated that it not be exhibited until two decades after her death, when she believed the world would finally be ready to understand what she had produced. Ultimately, it would take even longer. Although her art was finally shown in 1986, forty-two years after her death, it would take decades more before her extraordinary legacy finally earned the recognition it deserves.
This exhibition presents a survey of the Swedish artist’s career. In addition to 110 works from the essential Paintings for the Temple, it also showcases her early more conventional creations, the automatic drawings she made with her spiritualist group The Five, her geometrically inflected series from the years after the Paintings for the Temple, and her later watercolors and sketchbooks.
Gallery: Second floor
Curators: Tracey Bashkoff, Senior Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Lucía Agirre, Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Hilma af Klint
Group VI, Evolution, No. 16, The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series
(Grupp VI, Evolutionen, nr 16, Serie WUS/Sjustjärnan), 1908
Oil on canvas
102 x 133 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 84
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
The Exhibition
The Beginnings
Gallery 205
Hilma af Klint
Summer Landscape, 1888
Oil on canvas
88 x 148 cm
Dorsia Hotel, Gothenburg, Sweden
Photo: Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Spiritual Drawings, The Five (1896–1908)
Gallery 205
Hilma af Klint
Untitled, The Five, 1908
Dry pastel and graphite on paper
53.2 x 63.4 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 1252
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Primordial Chaos (1906–07)
Gallery 205
Hilma af Klint
Primordial Chaos, The WU/Rose Series, Group I, No. 15, 1906-07
Oil on canvas
52 x 37 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 15
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Eros (1907)
Gallery 205
Hilma af Klint
Eros Series, The WU/Rose Series, Group II, No. 5, 1907
Oil on canvas
58 x 79 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 31
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Large Figure Paintings (1907)
Gallery 206
Hilma af Klint
The Large Figure Paintings, The WU/Rose Series, Group III, No. 6, 1907
Oil on canvas
162.5 x 139.5 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK43
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
The Seven-Pointed Star (1908)
Gallery 207
Hilma af Klint
The Seven-Pointed Star, The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series, Group V, No. 2, 1908
Tempera, gouache, and graphite on paper, mounted on canvas
75.5 x 62 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 49
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Evolution (1908)
Gallery 207
Hilma af Klint
The Evolution, The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series, Group VI, No. 16, 1908
Oil on canvas
102 x 133 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 84
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
The Ten Largest (1907)
Gallery 209
Hilma af Klint
The Ten Largest, Childhood, Untitled Series, Group IV, No. 1, 1907
Tempera on paper, mounted on canvas
322 x 239 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 102
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
The Dove (1915)
Gallery 203
Hilma af Klint
The Dove, The SUW/UW Series, Group IX/UW, No. 1, 1915
Oil on canvas
151 x 114.5 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 173
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Altarpieces and Closing Painting (1915)
Gallery 203
Hilma af Klint
Retablo, Retablos, Grupo X, No. 1, 1915
Oil and metal leaf on canvas
237.5 x 179.5 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 187
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Hilma af Klint
The Parsifal Series, Group III, No. 121, 1916
Watercolor and graphite on paper
25 x 27 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 327
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Geometric Series and Watercolors (1920–22)
Gallery 202
Hilma af Klint
Untitled, On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees, 1922
Watercolor on paper
18 x 25 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK615
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Tree of Knowledge (1913)
Galley 204
Hilma af Klint
Tree of Knowledge, The W Series, No. 1, 1913
Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and ink on paper
45.7 x 29.5 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 133
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
The Swan (1915)
Gallery 208
Hilma af Klint
The Swan, The SUW/UW Series, Group IX/SUW, No. 13, 1915
Oil on canvas
148.5 x 151 cm
Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, HaK 161
©The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Bilbao 2024
Did you
know that...?
Hilma af Klint
As part of the Didaktika project, the Museum designs on site and online educational spaces as well as special activities that complement each exhibition, offering tools and resources to aid appreciation of the works on display...Spiritual beliefs and theosophy. Gateways to spiritual worlds
Throughout the mid- and late-19th century in Europe and the United States, spiritualism—the belief that the living can communicate with the dead—gained popularity. In a time when many scientific discoveries were revealing previously undetected forces...
Scientific developments. Behind the forces of matter
At the turn of the 20th century, new scientific developments, like long-distance communication and the discovery of X-rays, were transforming society. Both Modern artists and emerging spiritual movements engaged with many of these scientific concepts...
Women’s voice. From the dark room to public speaking
During the second half of the 19th century in Europe and the United States, women’s rights movements began to gain power. Women were working to ensure their voices were heard, as they sought to gain equal legal protections, improved working conditions, access to education, and the right to vote...
Figurative and abstract artworks. Observation and invention
After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Hilma af Klint took part in group exhibitions and became a respected naturalistic painter in Stockholm. She also demonstrated the range and depth of her skill in her work as a commercial artist...
