Hilma af Klint’s spell

Secret worlds will be revealed. The invisible will be visible on paper. You have been chosen to show it. I propose to write about Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) in the same way she painted: under the guidance of the great masters. The Swedish artist received instructions from spirit guides from other dimensions while holding the brush. I wonder what happens when we give up control and allow ourselves to be directed. That exact moment when we left the helm. I sink little by little into the depths of an endless ocean. I embark on a journey light years away to shed light on a divine treasure. But this time you will be my guide.

She lifts her oil palette and paints the landscapes around her. Hilma sits with her lectern on a floor of floating rocks. It is a summer afternoon in 1896 on Adelso, an island in the middle of Lake Mälaren in Sweden. The artist is reflected in a cyan-colored mirror interspersed with green and violet colors. Off the board, life. His feet touch the water and the sun caresses his eyelids. Close your eyes and breathe very deeply. He hears laughter and wakes up. He turns his head and looks at them in their beautiful dresses and hats. Smile for a moment that may last forever. One of those moments when we understand everything. Small revelations that show us the way. Discover four essential women in his life.

Off the board, life. His feet touch the water and the sun caresses his eyelids.

They met at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm and were inseparable again. It was one of the few centers that accepted women at the time, and despite belonging to the first generation of European artists with academic training, only men had access to formal art circles in the nineteenth century. Searching for new spaces of belonging, they decide to open up to the world of spiritualism, an esoteric practice of connecting with other dimensions. They created a group called Las Cinco and got together for 20 years to hold sessions from which drawings, paintings and specific instructions came out. In addition, they came together to design and build their own workshop near the lake.

I write so that his presence can return in these memories. I let myself go. I want to discover the images in your heart. Return to summer in Adelsö. This special boat returns after a sunny day on the island. Hilma approaches and bids farewell to the sunset through her eyes. That day he knew he loved her. Over the years she became his great love and artistic ally. As they sail over the deep waters, she opens the book in her hands and searches for a phrase for us to read together. “To truly know the world, look deep into your soul. To truly know yourself, look deep into your soul.” It’s a phrase from Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher who asserted that through colors we receive messages from the universe.

The five are sitting around a table with lit candles. His hands are supported and open. They say prayers to summon spirits and reach higher levels of consciousness. There is also paper and pencil for receiving messages through drawings or automatic writing. Hilma leads the session, and at the age of forty-three, she receives a letter that determines her fate. He must draw what he saw in that spiritual dimension and show it to the world in a circular temple. He accepts the assignment from his mentors and develops part of his central work entitled Paintings of the temple. Under this divine guidance, he draws circles, lines, triangles, and spirals on giant canvases. A series of 193 abstract paintings painted between 1906 and 1915.

The ten longestHilma af Klint, 1907.

Af Klint seeks to understand the world from a cosmic perspective. The artist uses drawing as a tool to embody her astral vision. Follow mysterious characters who come from other dimensions. Draw the invisible. Explore beyond what the eye can see. “The pictures were drawn directly by me, without preliminary sketches, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to represent; However, I worked quickly and safely, without changing a single brushstroke., He writes in his diary.

His work is the first group of abstract paintings in the history of art. However, they did not appear until years later. A mysterious box appears at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Stockholm in 1986. It has been closed for 40 years and contains more than 1,000 paintings and 125 notebooks. His paintings were first exhibited that year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the United States. History must be rewritten: Af Klint is the mother of abstraction, before two artists were considered pioneers, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

What is humanHilma af Klint, 1910.

Why do they hide their work? What messages do their colors convey? “Businesses that cannot be opened until 20 years after my death are marked with (+ x),” he wrote in his 1949 memoir. He asserts in other notes that the world was not ready to know his works. And his paintings will not be understood. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who misunderstood. It was impossible for an artist with an esoteric perspective to emerge in her time.

His paintings inaugurate new symbols and colors in a historical context of scientific discoveries and spiritual currents that prove the existence of a world parallel to matter. The artist introduces the use of flat colors, pastels and geometric shapes laden with mysticism that represent themes such as the duality of matter and spirit.

Altarpiece N1°, groupHilma af Klint, 1915.

I stop at one of them. There is a shining sun with a rainbow pyramid. It is the journey towards light and spiritual awareness. its name Altarwhich is part of the last group of Paintings of the templeIt consists of three large paintings. The artist imagines these last pieces at the end of the temple road. He explains in his 1930 notebook that visitors must climb a spiral staircase in a four-story circular structure until they reach the altar where the three paintings are located. His deepest desire is to convey a certain strength and calm.

Five days before her eighty-second birthday, Hilma died in a tram accident in Stockholm in 1944. Only thirty years later, the Museum of Modern Art in that city organized the first retrospective of her work. Then in 2018, the Guggenheim Museum in New York holds the exhibition Helma Clint: Paintings for the future. It is the most visited to date and a great demonstration of the mother of abstraction. But the most special feature is that it takes place in a circular building with a spiral staircase.

Af Klint emphasizes in his notes that the world was not ready to learn about his works.

We must build a temple to our art, Af Klint trusts. I think of this phrase as a mantra. I can’t stop looking at his paintings. They hypnotize me. I also can’t stop thinking about the design of the New York Museum. Coincidence or divine order? I write in front of the window in natural colors. If you hear me, respond with the sound of color. It shows Bentifio, a bird with a yellow breast, brown wings, and a black-and-white mask. The real structure is before my eyes.

“We must build a temple to our art,” says af Klint. I think of this phrase as a mantra. I can’t stop looking at his paintings. They hypnotize me. I also can’t stop thinking about the architecture of the New York Museum. I wonder if its circular shape is a coincidence or fate. Could its creation be the divine command you intended? I write in front of a window with the colors of nature in Mar Azul, Argentina. I’m somewhere close to the beach and the forest. If you hear me, respond with the sound of color. It shows Bentifio, a bird with a yellow breast, brown wings, and a black-and-white mask. Their song is filled with myths related to Latin American culture and symbolizes a connection with spirituality. The real structure is before my eyes.