Paintings that Reach for the Future

Within the works at the Klint’s exhibition, I felt the running theme of spirituality and creating works that transcend the time period of which they were created. They have little to do with the terrestrial realm, which give the pieces a timeless quality which allows the works to be interpreted in many different ways as time continues to progress. Beyond that there is also a feeling of “reaching” throughout the gallery. Many of the works feel as though they are reaching out, or rather tapping in to something beyond. Klint captures the essence of spirituality in the sense that the practice of religion and other spiritual practices involve reaching out into something not immediately or easily comprehensible. To seek something beyond comprehension that is not justifiable within the realms of reality. These endeavors of the human experience to “reach” for  something beyond ourselves also aid in helping to understand ourselves and our sense of identity and our place in the universe. These are concepts of theology and religion itself are further explored in Klint’s fantastic paintings.

(1.) Based on her background, it is easily understandable that Klint’s deep involvement in the realms of theology and religion are expressed clearly throughout much, if not, all of the works at the exhibition. The visceral response to these paintings that expresses much of her understanding of these concepts is immediate understanding, at least a face value. The response I had was that these paintings have much spiritual meaning tied to them and made me think of where I stood on the topic of religion. Though I grew up in a religious school environment, I began to make judgments about the world and the universe for myself the more I learned. The journey for understanding what are place in the universe is, I believe, part of the human experience and, in a way, is a part of everyone’s identity, whether you practice religion or not. I, personally, fall in to an agnostic, middle ground view in terms of religion. I attribute much of that to being firmly aware of either side and have from that drawn my own conclusions. As we continue to understand more about the universe as time continues, we are able to better parse information about our reality under the lens of theology and religion. (1.) Klint's works play at this marriage of the concepts and endeavors of science and religion, both “reaching” to something about our universe that isn’t easily understood. They both, when involving the origins of our universe have a sort of spiritual feeling to them, because the cosmos and its connection to spiritual practice are almost inseparable, which is explored in Klint’s work. (2.) The concept of time itself still baffles some the greatest minds of our day which is further explored within Chopra’s “You are the Universe”. All of these theories of the universe’s origins and religious telling of the creation of the heavens are all things that give us some kind of insight into the yet “unreachable” beginnings of not only our universe, but as well as the origins of us.

To conclude, much of Klint’s works touch on the spirituality and religion, but beyond that I found that the works were also “reaching” out into the future. And also into the non-tangible realms of understanding that we as humans have yet to grasp, whether it be under the lens of  theology and religion, or science.

(1.) On Hilma af Klint: Who was Hilma af Klint? At the Guggenheim, Paintings by an Artist Ahead of HerTime
https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/who-was-hilma-af-klint-at-the-guggenheim-paintings-by-an-artist-ahead-of-her-time

(2.) Deepak Chopra excerpt from his book, You Are the Universe

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/212685/you-are-the-universe-by-deepak-chopra-md-and-menas-c-kafatos-phd/9780307889157/excerpt