Abstract notions
Had Hilma af Klint created only botanical drawings and landscape paintings – as was expected of women in her day – she might be a minor footnote in Swedish art history, as a female artist able to make a living partly because of Sweden’s (slightly) more liberal attitudes.
But af Klint, born in 1862 and an 1887 graduate from Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, had an astonishingly different side to her life and work – one that has turned the art world on its head and made af Klint one of the most noted and in-demand artists, 77 years after her death.
In a rare treat for Aotearoa’s art lovers, Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings touches down at City Gallery Wellington in December. Wellington is only the second city in the Southern Hemisphere, after Sydney, to see why af Klint is now making waves.
It’s partly because of the
