Hilma af Klint 澳大利亚大展

Above: Hilma af Klint at her studio at Hamngatan 5, Stockholm c1895 Photograph courtesy the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.When Hilma af Klint first unveiled her soaring and spiritual paintings in the early 20th century, they were unlike anything anyone had seen at the time. Inspired by a deep mysticism and a belief in the otherworldly, these colourful and expansive works were defined by their symbolism and their scope. For many audiences at the time, they were also radical and startling.This was the early 1900s, when Klint was part of a group of female artists known as ‘The Five’, who practiced seances before heading into their studios to create. Under-appreciated in her life, the Swedish artist left all of her extensive body of work to her nephew upon her death in 1944, with strict instructions to keep this cache of paintings secret for 20 years. None of the paintings could be exhibited until then, Klint instructed him, adding many of the paintings must not be sold and separated from the group. Her nephew followed the instructions explicitly—so much so, that the first retrospective of her work only took place in 2013 at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet. In 2019, an exhibition of her art at New York’s Guggenheim Museum broke attendance records and has become the gallery’s most popular show of all time.Now, Klint’s visionary work is being celebrated in Australia, courtesy of a landmark exhibition opening tomorrow at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The first survey of her work to take place in the Asia-Pacific region, this exhibition comprises more than 120 of Klint’s works including paintings, watercolours and notebooks, and is co-curated by Nicholas Chambers from the AGNSW and Sue Cramer, formerly of the Heidi Museum of Modern Art.“Hilma af Klint’s recently discovered secret paintings are inherently mysterious and wondrous, mystical and abstract. She was wildly ahead of her time, and only now are we able to appreciate the sheer beauty and ambition of her achievement. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience these paintings firsthand, to feel their otherworldly power,” explains Sue Cramer, the co-curator ofHilma af Klint: The Secret Paintingsat the Art Gallery of New South Wales.Here is a preview of some of the most arresting works from the exhibition.Hilma af KlintGroup IV, The ten largest, no 2, childhood 1907 tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 315 x 234 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation.HaK103Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup IV, The ten largest, no 3, youth 1907 tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 321 x 240 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK104Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup IV, The ten largest, no 7, adulthood 1907 tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 315 x 235 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK108Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup IV, The ten largest, no 5, adulthood 1907 tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 321 x 237 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK106Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup I, Primordial chaos, no 16 1906–07 oil on canvas, 53 x 37 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK016Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintBotanical study 1890s watercolour and ink on paper, 35.8 x 22.4 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK1327Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup IX/SUW, The swan, no 1 1914–15 oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation.HaK149Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup IX/UW, The dove, no 2 1915 oil on canvas, 155.5 x 115.5 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK174Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintGroup X, Altarpiece, no 1 1915 oil and metal leaf on canvas, 237.5 x 179.5 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK187Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintOn the viewing of flowers and trees 1922 watercolour on paper, 18 x 25 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK622Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenHilma af KlintUntitled 1908 dry pastel and graphite on paper, 52.5 x 62.6 cmCourtesy of the Hilma af Klint FoundationHaK1258Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden