Hilma af Klint: Occult Painter and Abstract Pioneer

by Hilma af Klint, Ruth Urbom (Translator), Åke Fant

The long-awaited English translation of a pioneering account of af Klint’s oeuvre

For the first time since its original publication in 1989, Åke Fant’s pioneering account of Hilma af Klint’s life and career is available to read in English. Following her training at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and 20 subsequent years of painting, Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) began working with an abstract visual language in 1906. She then dedicated the rest of her life to her magnum opus, a series of large-scale abstract paintings intended to be exhibited as part of an immense spiritual temple. Af Klint drew upon contemporaneous occult sources to develop her work, such as Spiritualism and the writings of Theosophical writers Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant, as well as Rudolf Steiner, who claimed to be clairvoyant. This edition supplements Åke Fant’s original text and curator Lars Nittve’s foreword with a new preface by Kurt Almqvist (President, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit). An updated timeline, full-color reproductions of af Klint’s art and a beautiful cloth binding further emphasize the momentousness of Fant’s work, which remains vital even in the light of subsequent research, at a time when interest in Hilma af Klint and her work has never been greater.

Genres: Art, Philosophy, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

really informative and exciting stuff

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite collection!

[Courtland Bethune · Rating 5 out of 5]

The BEST art book I've read yet!!

Her work and way of thought and living is truly inspiring!!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

[Clinton Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This 1989 book is functional as an overview of the inspirations for Hilma Af Klimt’s work and provides a useful, if summary-like and lacking depth, overview of the spiritualist and Theosophist beliefs that led to Klimt’s inspiration—as well as of her various spirit guides and her basic sense that her work was guided (and, somewhat less involved, notions of what that means). However, the main reason to have the book is for the generous number of color plates detailing the art that’s discussed in the body of the book; at the time, it appears little was known about the details of her day-to-day life (this may still be true today—I don’t know—looking her up here produced one other book that was well-reviewed and is probably more recent), and if you’re looking for a detailed overview of the source material for the more abstract work, it’s probably in her journals rather than here (and I don’t know if those were published completely or in what languages). That said, if you enjoy the art, it does trace the chronological evolution of her work well, without any major gaps, and even a good selection of what potentially could be called more “minor” works are included in the approximately 150 pages of plates.