Julia Voss - Hilma af Klint: A Biography

Julia Voss

Translated by Anne Posten

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2022 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2022

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-68976-0 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-68993-7 (e-book)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226689937.001.0001

Originally published as: Hilma af Klint. Die Menschheit in Erstaunen versetzen S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 2020

Published with the assistance of the Getty Grant Program.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Voss, Julia, 1974 author. | Posten, Anne, translator.

Title: Hilma af Klint : a biography / Julia Voss ; translated by Anne Posten.

Other titles: Hilma af Klint. English (Posten)

Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022020200 | ISBN 9780226689760 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226689937 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Klint, Hilma af, 18621944. | PaintersSwedenBiography. | Women paintersSwedenBiography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Artists, Architects, Photographers | ART / European

Classification: LCC ND793.K63 V6713 2022 | DDC 759.85 [B]dc23/eng/20220605

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020200

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Hilma af Klint: A Biography was originally published in German (Hilma af Klint: Die Menschheit in Erstaunen versetzen) in 2020 by S. Fischer Verlag. Since then, more information about the artists life and work has come to light. This English-language version reflects the new research. The text has also been modestly revised in collaboration with the author to address the needs of Anglophone readers.

Voss draws extensively on Hilma af Klints personal notebooks, most of which were written in Swedish. Where quotes appear in the German edition, the translations are Vosss own. I have translated these quotes from Vosss translations, often in consultation with her. Af Klints writing is usually grammatically simple and direct, but since her notebooks are primarily a record of her spiritual experiences, the content and references are sometimes obscure. Many of the messages af Klint received from the spiritual world were unclear even to her and were simply recorded as received. For this reason I have endeavored to translate the primary sources as lightly and directly as possible. On a practical level, most Swedish proper nouns have been translated after an initial mention of the original. Where the author has quoted the German translation of works originally written in English, the original has been drawn from and added to the bibliography. Likewise when she quotes from German works where an English version already exists, the existing translation has been used and added to the bibliography.

• 1862. Hilma af Klint is born on October 26 at the Karlberg Palace in Solna outside Stockholm.
• 1879. Participates in her first sances, probably in the circle of painter, photographer, and medium Bertha Valerius. Studies at the Technical School and meets Anna Cassel, who also studies art. Af Klint also takes courses at Kerstin Cardons private art school.
• 1880. Her sister Hermina dies at the age of ten.
• 18821888. Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm.
• 18861914. Shows conventional paintings in more than two dozen exhibitions, most organized by the Swedish General Art Association (Sveriges Allmnna Konstfrening).
• 1888. Awarded a prize by the Academy for painting from the human model, probably for her oil painting Andromeda at the Sea, which she submitted to the Academys competition on that mythological topic.
• 18881908. Participates regularly in group exhibitions and travels to Germany, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and Italy.
• 1891. Receives messages from spiritual beings for the first time herself.
• 1896. Becomes a member of the Edelweiss Society (Edelweissfrbundet). During a sance, the spiritualist group The Five (De Fem) is founded, comprising Sigrid Hedman, Cornelia Cederberg, Mathilda Nilsson, Anna Cassel, and af Klint. Their meetings are recorded in notebooks with texts and automatic drawings.
• 1898. Her father, Victor af Klint, dies.
• 1899. Moves with her mother, Mathilda af Klint, to Brahegatan 52 in Stockholm.
• 19001901. Together with Anna Cassel, draws illustrations for a book on horse surgery written by John Vennerholm, director of the Veterinary Institute in Stockholm.
• 19021908. Rents a studio at Hamngatan 9.
• 1903. Travels to Germany with Anna Cassel and most likely to Italy on the same trip.
• 1904. First receives predictions from the spiritual being Ananda about the execution of astral paintings. Joins the Theosophical Society in May.
• 1906. In January the spiritual being Amaliel offers her a commission, which she accepts immediately. After a period of preparation, in November she commences the cycle Paintings for the Temple with its first series, Primordial Chaos.
• 1907. Paints the series Eros, The Large Figure Paintings, and The Ten Largest. Works also in a shared large studio at Hamngatan 5, above Blanchs Caf. The Five undergoes a crisis and dissolves in early 1908. A group of thirteen emerges over the years.
• 1908. Paints three more series, including Evolution. By April the first section of Paintings for the Temple comprises 111 pictures. Her mother goes blind, and af Klint gives up her studio. Meets Rudolf Steiner in Sweden for the first time at his lecture about his new Rosicrucian teachings in March 1908. Starts to develop a lifelong interest in Rudolf Steiners teachings.
• 19081912. Takes a four-year break from the commission Paintings for the Temple.
• 1910. Probably in January 1910 shows Rudolf Steiner works belonging to Paintings for the Temple. Steiner lectures in Stockholm January 315, including on the Gospel of John. Af Klint joins the Association of Swedish Women Artists (Freningen Svenska Konstnrinnor) and is the secretary until April 22, 1911. She paints portraits of physicist Knut ngstrm and linguist Johan August Lundell and exhibits a conventional painting in the Norrkping Exhibition of 1910.
• 1912. Resumes work on Paintings for the Temple with prepa-ratory studies and on A Female Series. Attends the Pentecost conference of the Theosophical Society in Norrkping May 2830, where Rudolf Steiner lectures. By the end of the year Steiner is expelled from the Theosophical Society and in early 1913 founds the Anthroposophical Society.
• 1913. Buys the lake house Furuheim on the island of Muns. Paints the series