Artist in Focus - Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist whose paintings were amongst the first abstract art. A considerable body of her abstract work pre-dates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky.

She belonged to a group called “The Five”, a circle of women who shared her belief in the importance of trying to make contact with the outer world. Her paintings, which sometimes resemble diagrams, were a visual representation of complex spiritual ideas.

The interest for abstraction and symbolism came from her involvement in Spiritualism. In 1908 she met Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical Society. Rudolf Steiner initiated her to his own theories regarding arts, and would have influence on her paintings later in life.

All through her life, she would seek to understand the mysteries that she had come in contact with through her work. She left behind more than a hundred and fifty notebooks with her thoughts and studies, yet never dared to show her abstract work to her contemporaries.