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October 12 , 2003
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Special case
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Posted at 13:47 EST
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 Hilma af Klint was born in Sweden on 26 October 1862. She was interested in mathematics and botany. In addition, she began at an early age to study portrait painting. As a child and during her student years she was susceptible to extrasensory experiences and at seventeen became seriously involved in spiritualism. In 1882 entered the Royal Academy in Stockholm and after five years of study she was awarded a studio of her own in which she worked professionally as a portrait and landscape painter.
Together with four other women she formed a spiritualist group during the 1890s: the Friday Group, or the Five, as they called themselves
From 1896 this group did receive spiritual teachings from high spiritual beings. Through its spirit leaders the group was inspired to draw automatically in pencil, a technique that was not unusual at that time. When the hand moved automatically, the conscious will did not direct the pattern that developed on the paper; the women thus became artistic tools for their spirit leaders. In a series of sketchbooks, religious scenes and religious symbols were depicted in drawings made by the group collectively. The group's drawing technique developed in such a way that abstract patterns, dependent on the free movement of the hand, became visible....
Between 1906 and 1915 Hilma created the Central work, also called The paintings for the Temple. It consists of nearly 200 paintings. Only a very limited circle of persons was allowed to see the paintings during Hilma’s life-time. In accordance with her wishes the paintings were not to be displayed in public until at the earliest 20 years after her death.
info from The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985, copublished by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Abbeville Press (1986)
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