Museum Assignment

Guggenheim Museum Assignment

Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist. She left behind more than 1,000 paintings and works on paper that she kept private during her lifetime. Klint believed that the world was not ready for her art. In the recent decades the public finally got a chance to experience af Klint’s abstract paintings. The paintings displayed at the Guggenheim opened up new perspectives for me and allowed me to explore into the mind of another spiritual and creative human being. Each painting delivered a different message. All the exhibits however were focused around the themes involving human life and its stages, spirituality, the human body, the universe, and the future.Hilma af Klint was involved with seances, trying to communicate with the dead, but soon decided that it was a better choice to attempt contact with higher spirits. She soon met a student named Anna Cassel, who was also interested in spiritism and the esoteric religion Theosphy. Spiritualism is known as the practice of communicating with unseen spirits gained a widespread popularity in the United States and Europe over the second half of the nineteenth century. Spiritualism would then eventually help Klint make a major artistic breakthrough. Klint’s legacy broke the stereotypes which allowed her to be comfortable enough where she could be herself through out her paintings. It was known that in the 1890s, af Klint was involved in spiritualism and had a group of who shared the same beliefs who established themselves as The Five. This group believed they communicated with and received messages from beings of higher consciousness by entering trance states or using a psychograph. Klint and these four other women strongly believed that what one could say becomes a part of ones identity. The theories of humanity’s connection to the universe is what greatly influenced her paintings. An interesting aspect of Klint’s work is the way she mixes floral designs, geometric figures, and biomorphic forms with letters with made up words that makes a vocabulary of complex meanings. If I took the effort to reflect more on the topic of spiritualism it could definitely play a part in my own work if I understood a reasoning for my purpose in life. My work is usually inspired by personal experiences so it would not be as significant. It is also important to be aware about the way how the universe is connected through this interconnectivity of time and space. With this I could interpret my personal experiences into narratives that could possibly bring awareness to self-reflection on those who could be inspired.

Works Cited

https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/who-was-hilma-af-klint-at-the-guggenheim-paintings-by-an-artist-ahead-of-her-time

https://frieze.com/article/secret-seances-and-high-masters-making-mystic-painter-hilma-af-klint