The Artist in Pursuit of the Invisible
An exhibit of her paintings at the Guggenheim in 2019 drew the museum’s highest attendance ever. Another show closes this month at the Grand Palais in Paris. Some of her pieces have been shown at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art. Why did it take more than a half century after her death and almost 150 years after her birth for the art world to recognize and appreciate the genius of Hilma Af Klint?
Join us Sunday, Aug. 30, 12:30 pm for Back Lane Studios’ next Extraordinary Woman event at the Revue Cinema. We will be screening the 2019 documentary Beyond the Visible — Hilma Af Klint, followed by a Q&A with Alison Syme, U of T associate professor of Modern Art, and PhD student Bronwen Cox, who is focussing on women artists and the occult. Tickets are a suggested donation of $16 on Eventbrite or at the Revue Cinema Door — click here.
Watch the trailer here.
Some Background:
Hilma Af Klint was born in 1862 into a noble Swedish family. Early on, she showed an aptitude for mathematics, botany and art and distinguished herself at the Royal Academy of Fine Art. She was adept at portraiture, landscapes and botanicals, subjects favoured by 19th century society, and she earned income from her work.
But then a spiritual quest led her to the esoteric and the occult, the Theosophists, the Anthroposophists, to seances, in which she communicated with and received guidance from the spirit world.
That changed everything.
The result was an extraordinary body of work, much of it inspired by a spirit-world leader, colourful, energetic abstractions, some huge, often with religious and natural references. These paintings predate those of Wassily Kandinsky and others who claimed the crown of the first abstract artists; yet, many of us have never heard of her.
One reason: She decreed that her art and notebooks be kept secret for 20 years after her death, which occurred in 1944. She maintained that the world was not yet ready for her paintings.
Still, it has only been in the last decade or so that Af Klint’s art has truly captured public attention. Her images and the story of her life have inspired films, a graphic biographical novel, books, a couple of operas and some blockbuster exhibits, the most recent at the Grand Palais in Paris.
- Who was this woman who spent much of her life, isolated on a Swedish island, driven to interpret visually the world we can’t see, the world of spiritual energy, atomic particles and radiation?
- Why was her unconventional work first dismissed by the powers that be? Was it easy to dismiss because the artist was female? Was she disqualified by her foray into the world of the occult? (Meanwhile, male artists of the period — like Kandinsky or Piet Mondrian — were also intrigued by the occult and the ideas of the Theosophists.)
- Who were the Theosophists and Anthroposophists? Why were they so influential and why did so many women artists in the late 19th and early 20th century turn to their esoteric philosophies?
- How have issues of gender and the very nature of the art world hindered our understanding and appreciation of art?
Controversy continues to swirl around Hilma Af Klint and her work. How were her enormous “Temple” paintings inspired and executed? Did she have help? Who should determine the future of her paintings? Should they be reserved for sacred purposes, as she originally intended, or released, in effect to the marketplace, for public exhibition?
Join us for the story of a fascinating woman whose life and work raise many questions. We are thrilled to have two art history specialists with expertise in late 19th and early 20th century art to discuss these issues.
Our Guest Experts:
Alison Syme is Associate Professor of Modern Art at the University of Toronto and Vice-Dean, Faculty at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her work focuses on late 19th and early 20th century art in Britain and Europe and treats a range of topics from society portraiture and animal painting to early abstraction. She is the author of A Touch of Blossom: John Singer Sargent and the Queer Flora of Fin-de-Siècle Art (2010) and Willow (2014) and is currently completing a three-volume collection of primary sources on the Victorian artist.
Bronwen Cox is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on late 19th and early 20th century mediumistic women artists, examining the intersections between occult modernism, authorship and gender roles. Her research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and a Jackman Junior Fellowship.