I know we tend to be realists here (at least visually) and we don’t talk about lot about abstract art. Dare I say many of us have a bit of a chip on our shoulders about Abstract Art as a movement, and I’ll be the first to agree that a lot of it is all concept, no craft, and that leaves me cold. However, that doesn’t mean that all abstract art or artists working in abstraction don’t have an anything to teach us, or aren’t worthy of admiration. And since I just went to see hands down my favorite Abstract artist’s show at MOMA last week, it’s a good excuse to introduce you to Hilma af Klint, if you don’t know her.

Now, I could write a bio but this video does a great job:

And the main takeaway here was that Hilma, trained to be a realist and naturalist, went on a journey over years that led her further and further into abstraction. She was so far ahead of her male peers in abstraction (like Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pollock, etc) and definitely so far ahead of the fine art world in general that she literally put it in her will that her work was not to be shown until the art world caught up. A little sad, because misogyny, but also, what an epic badass.

What I personally find really fascinating — and why she is my favorite Abstract artist — is that she started on an artistic and spiritual journey to abstraction, but left copious notes in a very meticulous way that really makes my graphic designer heart happy. We’re not just slammed in the face with art so abstract you can’t get anything but a cold concept. There’s still a great deal of skill in it, but there’s also a narrative in it if you are looking for it. Furthermore, Hilma went back and forth in and out of abstraction her whole working career. Her giant Paintings for the Temple that were exhibited at the Guggenheim a few years back are the pinnacle of her most abstract works — but then this show is work that came after — when she was literally trying to codify nature into an abstract visual and spiritual system. If you’ve been following my Muddy Colors posts for any time at all, you’ll know my interests overlap Jungian Psychology, Myth, Magic, Art, Design, Symbolism, Ancient History, and Spirituality — and Hilma was working right at that intersection.

I didn’t know her at all until her big Guggenheim retrospective a few years ago, and I was bowled off my feet. I went back multiple times. How had I not known about this artist?! The only consolation was that nobody really did, by her own design. But that exhibit was her coming-out party. Now she’s being called “Abstractions Superheroine”.

This exhibit at MOMA was different — it was more of a process exhibit. It was full of daily sketches and notebooks and you could really see her thought process. It was all watercolors and pencils and man, I wish I could read Swedish. (I bought the exhibit catalog, great book).

Anyway, I love her work. I wish I could go back in time and see the Guggenheim exhibit a few more times. I hope you enjoy her too! Here’s some more articles about her:

They Called her a Crazy Witch: Did Hilma af Klint Invent Abstract Art?”

A Swirl of Intrigue Surrounds Hilma after Klint’s Icon Status