Following MoMA in New York, Kunstmuseum Den Haag is now able to add to its collection a work by Hilma af Klint on long-term loan, Series VIII of 1920. The exhibition Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life is currently showing at the museum. This series, which is not part of the exhibition, will now be incorporated into the museum’s permanent exhibit Discover the Modern.
The museum is very grateful to The Hilma af Klint Foundation, as the series consitutes an important addition to the permanent collection, which features paintings by some of af Klint’s contemporaries, including Wassily Kandinsky and Jacoba van Heemskerck. Like Hilma af Klint, these artists also explored the spiritual in art.
Kunstmuseum Den Haag now becomes the first Dutch museum to permanently exhibit work by af Klint.
Having completed her ‘Paintings for the Temple’ in 1915 – 193 works in series which were commissioned by the spirit world – Hilma af Klint began to produce smaller works, and her form language became more elemental. She did however continue to work in series, each of which depicted a development, an evolution. Series VIIIconsists of six works that af Klint made in six days. They explore the relationship between the outside world and the inner world, and humans’ desire to discover their innermost core.
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Hilma af Klint, Series VIII, Picture of the Starting Point, 1920, Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation
In 1920, more than ever, af Klint was seeking connection with nature. Along with her partner Thomasine Anderson, she wrote in her textbook comments like, “The vibrant power of plants conceals the warmth of feeling. The mobility of animals conceals the power of thought. The gravity of rock unites thought and feeling.” Series VIII was part of this search. Anderson described the picture of the starting point in the series as the sun surrounded by an aura consisting of five coloured circles that symbolise the powers of the spirit. The colours have symbolic meaning. Blue and yellow represent the male and female, while god and silver symbolise the spiritual and human worlds. Anderson believed that the journey to the essence of humanity involved balancing these worlds and allowing them to merge. In 1920 af Klint became a member of the Anthroposophical Society, and she visited its founder Rudolf Steiner that same year. Steiner called for the spiritual in painting to be depicted on the basis of the essence of colour. This visit brought about a change in af Klint’s style, and after Series VIII she began to allow different colours to merge in her watercolours.
About the exhibition
In a collaboration with Tate Modern, Kunstmuseum Den Haag has united the groundbreaking work of Hilma af Klint with that of her pioneering contemporary Piet Mondrian. Though the two painters never met, their unique bodies of work reflect an age in which people’s view of reality was undergoing radical change as a result of scientific discoveries and new ideas about spirituality. Inspired by the same intellectual and spiritual sources, these two artists developed their own visual language, unrelated to natural phenomena. Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life closes on 25 February 2024.
A series of podcasts has been produced to provide background information on the exhibition.
Zestee 