Hilma af Klint Retrospective at the Guggenheim

Dear Reader,

A sublime part of visiting New York’s Guggenheim museum is surrendering to its space. My preference is to go directly to the top of the spiral and work downward. The trade-off is that chronological exhibitions are backward, which never bothers me at all.

In the case of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint’s (1862-1944) retrospective, the top of the spiral presented her late minimalist geometrical paintings, final expressions of a life of artmaking. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I encourage you to put her name into your search engine and spend time looking.

Klint was allowed to attend art school in Sweden. Early on, she produced landscapes a la Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot and beguiling portraits. Her talent was obvious. However, she chose a different path, and spiritualism guided her into abstraction.

Wending one’s way floor-by-floor down the ramp, her radical (for the time) abstract work was a revelation. Klint produced her paintings years BEFORE Miro, Picasso, Klee, Malevich, Mondrian or Marsden Hartley. This pioneer of abstraction employed floral, biomorphic and geometric shapes (letters and words, too – pay attention, Jasper Johns). It is probable that none of these abstract artists were inspired by her work because they never saw it.

Because of my downward spiral approach, the climax came in a lower gallery which held a set of gobsmackingly-incredible works she called “The Ten Largest.” Indeed. They are ten by eight feet. She must have had a time in her long skirts working canvases as big as sails.

I have seen and made a lot of art in my life, but this series was THE MOST RAVISHING ART I HAVE EVER SEEN. Period.

Hilma af Klint knew what the art world was ready for and that her art wasn’t it. She held back from exhibiting during her lifetime. She even went so far as to stipulate that her work was not to be shown until 20 years after her death. She hardly needed to worry: a few sporadic exhibits were held in Europe in the 1980’s. After all, who was she, anyway?