Hilma af Klint has been a sensation in the overlapping realms of fine art and occultism since 2018, when her previously little seen work received its first large scale exhibition. A dedicated Theosophist, she created puissant Abstract Art of her own device, apparently unaware of other pioneering Abstractionists. She cited her main influence as the spiritual world, contacted via regular seance work.
Since then, there have been major exhibitions mounted around the world on a regular basis – mainly the same body of large scale abstract works. But now an exhibition based on a different body of her work has appeared, looking at her watercolor renderings of plant life, often annotated with commentary on the aetheric aspects involved. The New York Times ran a review, including this observation:
“All very nice. But what keeps you looking is the evangelically mystical bottom half of these paintings. At the foot of each specimen af Klint has penciled and colored a small diagram explaining, hence this show’s title, “what stands behind the flowers.” In crisp geometries, line work and touches of metallic paint, the pictograms imagine the spiritual states and the motives that she believes emanate from these vegetal beings. Her corresponding notebook, under glass nearby, explains these diagrams in charmingly factual prose.”
read the whole article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/arts/design/hilma-af-klint-moma.html
