“ You have a mystery service ahead, and will soon enough realize what is expected of you.”—Hilma af Klint
While female artists were scarcely recognized in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was among the rare women creators of her time who pursued an artistic career and gained public attention as a significant pioneer of abstract art, even ahead of Kandinsky and Mondrian.
Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 3, Youth, 1907, By courtesy of The Hilma af Klint Foundation.
Running until June 15th this year at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, “Hilma af Klint: The Beyond” showcases approximately 140 of the artist’s prominent works comprised of oil, watercolor, and pastel masterpieces, sketches and notebooks. Through the cooperation of The Hilma af Klint Foundation in Sweden, the exhibition presents the first major Hilma af Klint retrospective held in Asia.
Af Klint’s unique theme lies in her avid fascination with the spiritual and the scientific. Born in Stockholm, she grew up with her naval officer father who guided her along the paths of astronomy, navigation, and mathematics. As a student at the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts, she demonstrated early prowess in basic forms and botanical illustrations. One of her early watercolor works, Poppye (undated), clearly defines the bold details of the lines around the petals and leaves, and redness of the flowers that leave a striking impression.
Hilma af Klint, Poppye, undated, By courtesy of The Hilma af Klint Foundation
The introduction to spiritualism began when Af Klint was seventeen years old. Around the late 1800s, there were a number of groups linked with esotericism in Stockholm. Among them, Theosophy, the religious philosophy based on the knowledge of God achieved through spiritual ecstasy or direct intuition, broadly spread and impacted Af Klint immensely, both ideologically and artistically. She formed a group called The Five (De Fem) with female friends where they engaged in seances and spiritual practices. In 1904, she became a member of the Stockholm branch of the Theosophical Society. The trances involved communication with higher spiritual beings, and recordings of received messages in the form of writings and drawings. Such drawings consisted of wavy lines, spirals, letters, and natural motifs like plants, cells, and celestial bodies that would later become crucial components in her outstanding work, The Paintings for the Temple. Gradually, Af Klint detoured towards a new visual expression deviating from her academic training.
We finally come to the highlight of the exhibition, The Paintings for the Temple, completed over ten years, from 1906 to 1915. The cycle covers 193 works, divided into several series: Primordial Chaos (1906-1907), The Eros Series (1907), The Large Figure Paintings (1907),The Ten Largest (1907), The Evolution (1908), Tree of Knowledge (1913-1915), The Swan (1914-1915), Altarpieces (1915), and The Blue Books.
Hilma af Klint, Altarpieces, Group X, No. 1, 1915, By courtesy of The Hilma af Klint Foundation
Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 7, Adulthood, 1907, By courtesy of The Hilma af Klint Foundation
The Ten Largest, a set of ten colorful paintings over three meters high, travels to Japan for the first time, and are hung up in a cube-like installation that permits visitors to circle around them leisurely and sit down, while marveling at the luminous hues and geometric compositions. The enormous paintings represent the concept of evolution of human life in four stages: Childhood, Youth, Adulthood, and Old Age. Common motifs encompass circles, rectangles, ornamental flower petals and vines, body cells and heavenly forms. Circles within circles seem to spin around the viewers’ minds, transporting them beyond a transcendental realm. The pictures were meant to illuminate theosophical teachings that may unchain humans from the material world and embrace their spiritual abilities. At the same time, spiritualistic art shared a niche with science in the pursuit to discover the unseen world. Some words, pertaining to a higher being or chastity, are inserted within the objects, believed to have come from the spirits.
In Tree of Knowledge, Af Klint returned to a more Christian perspective, taking reference from the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis. The watercolor works appear to fuse tree roots with the human brain, as linked with the “cosmic tree” (conceptualized by Austrian esotericist Rudolf Steiner) that inspired the artist greatly. This philosophy denotes that the brain serves as a portal to the cosmic tree, connecting the microcosm to the universe.
The Swan symbolizes liberation from reincarnation by attaining a higher state of existence. The No. 17 painting in red orange background illustrates propeller-like circles that seem to whirl in motion. Focus is placed on the merge of death and life (black and white) and male and female.
The alluring Altarpieces of three paintings reveal circles, hierarchic triangles, and primary colors that harmonize with Theosophical teachings pertaining to the ascension from physical to spiritual state, and descent from divine to material dimension.
After the completion of The Paintings for the Temple, Af Klint experimented on different directions, towards more color and random forms. The elements of anthroposophy, which deals with a holistic approach in human development to obtain an existing spiritual world, becomes more evident in her works. She was a member of the Anthroposophical Society until her death. Her watercolor technique, such as in Untitled (1934), emphasized a more natural flow, allowing pigments to diffuse on the paper.
Hilma af Klint, Untitled, 1934, By courtesy of The Hilma af Klint Foundation
The exhibition also stages the artist’s important notebooks, which recorded her profound thoughts and visual expressions. These included the plan to build a temple to house The Paintings for the Temple series, which however, was not actualized.
Af Klint passed away in 1944 at the age of 81, and had left a diverse collection of over 1,000 accomplishments.
Hilma af Klint: The Beyond
Date: Until June 15, 2025
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Opening hours: 10 am–5 pm (Fridays and Saturdays open until 8 pm)
Closed: Mondays (except March 31 and May 5), May 7
Written by By Alma Reyes
