The Ten Largest, No. 8, Adulthood - Hilma af Klint
Archival giclée
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Description
A monumental abstract work from 1907, representing the stage of adulthood through soft lilac tones and organic, symbolic forms.
The Ten Largest, No. 8, Adulthood is a monumental work from the series created by Hilma af Klint in 1907. This series explores the human life cycle, with this specific piece representing the stage of adulthood. The composition is defined by a soft, lilac-toned background that provides a stage for various organic shapes, including circles, spirals, and flowing lines. These forms are rendered in a palette of pale yellow, sky blue, and white, creating a sense of lightness and ethereal movement across the large-scale surface.
Af Klint produced these works as part of a spiritual project, seeking to visualise metaphysical concepts that exist beyond the physical realm. The shapes are not merely decorative, but function as a symbolic language. The repetition of circular motifs and the fluid, calligraphic lines suggest growth, connection, and the cyclical nature of human experience. Unlike many of her contemporaries who moved toward abstraction through the reduction of observed reality, af Klint developed her visual vocabulary through an engagement with theosophy and spiritualism.
The scale of the work is significant, as it was intended to be viewed in a temple setting. The application of tempera results in a matte finish, which softens the interaction between the colours. The composition balances large, dominant forms with smaller, delicate details, creating a rhythm that guides the eye across the canvas. This piece remains a primary example of early twentieth-century abstraction, demonstrating a unique approach to form and colour that predates the more widely recognised abstract movements of the era.
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
The Ten Largest, No. 8, Adulthood - Hilma af Klint
Artist Biography
Hilma Af Klint
She was born in 1862 into a naval family in Stockholm. She showed early ability in both mathematics and botany, studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduated with honours in 1887, and established herself as a conventional painter of landscapes and portraits. She also worked as a scientific illustrator, producing botanical drawings of fungi for a book that was never published. In 1919 and 1920 she drew flowers almost daily, creating jewel-toned watercolours with the precision of a naturalist who knew when each species bloomed.
The abstract work came from a different source. She attended her first seance at seventeen. In 1896 she formed a group called De Fem (The Five) with four other women: Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson. They contacted what they believed to be spirit guides from another dimension and kept meticulous notes. In 1906, aged forty-four, she received instructions during a seance to create paintings for a Temple. She never understood where or what this Temple was, but she began.
The Paintings for the Temple series, 193 works made between 1906 and 1915, includes compositions that are completely abstract. She used a systematic colour symbolism: blue for femininity or spirituality, yellow for masculinity or intellect. Spirals, circles, and intersecting lines represented spiritual forces or natural processes. Where Kandinsky's abstraction looked inward to the artist's own psychology, af Klint believed astral spirits were working through her hands.
She died in 1944. The embargo lifted in 1964, but the work was not shown publicly until 1986. In 2018, the Guggenheim mounted Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future. It drew over 600,000 visitors, the most attended exhibition in the museum's history. She left behind more than 1,200 paintings and thousands of pages of notes.
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