Hilma af Klint was painting abstract art in 1906[5]. Kandinsky's first abstract works are generally dated to 1910 or 1911. Malevich and Mondrian came later still. She predated them all by years, and nobody knew, because she stipulated that her work should not be shown until twenty years after her death.
Key facts
Biography
She was born in 1862[5] 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[5], 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[5] 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[5] 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[5]. 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.
Timeline
- 1862Born in Solna, near Stockholm, the fourth child of a Swedish naval commander. Grew up spending summers on the island of Adelso in Lake Malaren, where the natural landscape became central to her imagination.
- 1882Admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm at age 20, one of the first women accepted to the institution. Studied portraiture, botanical drawing and landscape painting over the next five years.
- 1896Formed the spiritualist group De Fem (The Five) with four other women in Stockholm at age 34. The group held regular seances and experimented with automatic drawing, which profoundly shaped her later abstract work.
- 1906Painted her first series of abstract compositions at age 44 in Stockholm, predating Kandinsky's celebrated abstractions by several years. These 26 paintings formed the opening group of her monumental cycle, The Paintings for the Temple.
- 1908Met the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in Stockholm at age 45 and showed him her abstract paintings. His lukewarm response prompted her to pause the Temple cycle for four years.
- 1912Resumed work on The Paintings for the Temple at age 50, renting a villa on the island of Munso. Produced 82 further canvases over the next three years, bringing the total cycle to over 190 works.
- 1944Died at age 81 in Djursholm, Sweden, following a traffic accident. She left instructions that her abstract work should not be shown publicly until at least 20 years after her death.
Notable Works
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Where to See Hilma af Klint
3 museums worldwide.
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2 works
Maritime Museum
Gärdet, Sweden
Related Artists
Frequently Asked Questions
Hilma af klint art movement?
Hilma af Klint's spiritualist visions connect with the Art Nouveau movement, which sought to extend art into the spiritual realm.How did hilma af klint die?
Hilma af Klint died in 1944[5] at the age of 82.Was hilma af klint the first abstract artist?
Hilma af Klint was probably the first artist in the West to produce an abstract painting.What is Hilma af Klint's most famous work?
Hilma af Klint created a large body of abstract paintings, watercolours, and drawings between 1906[5] and 1944[5]. She specified that her abstract works were not to be exhibited until 20 years after her death. Among her most well-known works are *Paintings for the Temple*, a series begun in 1906 and continued through 1915. This collection includes several subgroups, such as *Primordial Chaos*, *The Seven-pointed Star*, and *The WUS Series*. These paintings are characterised by geometric shapes, symbolic colours, and diagrams. Klint's paintings explored spiritual and philosophical ideas. She was associated with The Five, a group of women interested in spiritualism. Her art aimed to represent invisible realities and cosmic orders.What should I know about Hilma af Klint's prints?
Hilma af Klint was a Swedish[5] artist (1862[5]-1944[5]). She is now best known for her paintings, which pre-date the work of other abstract artists. Af Klint studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1882[5]-1887[5]). For many years, she produced conventional portraits and pictures. From 1896, she kept notebooks of her spiritualist experiments. She and four other women formed a group called "The Five". They held séances and contacted spirits who became her guides. Between 1906 and 1915, af Klint painted a cycle of abstract works, on commission from these spirits. She visualised other dimensions and expressed mystical ideas. The paintings use geometric shapes and diagrams, combined with words and symbols. Af Klint specified that these abstract paintings should not be exhibited until 20 years after her death. As a result, her work was not widely known until the 1980s. The first major exhibition of her paintings was in 2013, at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Since then, af Klint's art has gained considerable attention. Prints of her abstract compositions are now popular. They offer an accessible way to engage with her unique visual language.What style or movement did Hilma af Klint belong to?
Hilma af Klint (1862[5]-1944[5]) was a Swedish[5] artist who produced abstract works featuring geometric shapes and symbols. She began this exploration in 1906[5], drawing inspiration from theosophy, a spiritual and philosophical movement. In fact, Klint started to abandon figurative art and explore relationships between colours and shapes several years before Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian. She was among the first women to receive a higher education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. After graduating with honours, she received a scholarship in the form of a studio owned by the Academy in central Stockholm. Scientific developments, such as Darwin’s theories and the discovery of radioactivity and X-rays, affected many artistic circles. These discoveries confirmed for spiritualists that there is an invisible realm of existence. Because she rarely exhibited her paintings, and stipulated that they not be shown for 20 years after her death, her work was little known until the late twentieth century.What techniques or materials did Hilma af Klint use?
Hilma af Klint employed a variety of techniques and materials in her artistic practice. She is best known for her paintings, which often combined oil and tempera. These works frequently feature geometric shapes, symbolic imagery, and writing. Af Klint's early works were executed in a more traditional style. She produced botanical drawings, portraits, and pictures. However, her involvement with spiritualism and The Five (a group of female artists) led her to develop a more abstract visual language. From 1906[5] to 1915, af Klint created a series titled "Paintings for the Temple". These pieces were produced according to spiritual instructions. They are characterised by their large scale and unusual combinations of media. She often worked on canvas, sometimes unprimed, and experimented with layering paint to achieve particular effects. Her approach was methodical; she kept detailed notebooks documenting her process and the symbolism within her art. She also made use of watercolour and drawing in her preparatory sketches and studies.What was Hilma af Klint known for?
Hilma af Klint (1862[5]-1944[5]) was a Swedish[5] artist who produced abstract works from 1906[5]. These paintings featured geometric shapes and symbols, and she used bright colours in her work. Klint was inspired by theosophy. She also participated in séances, and she stated that a voice prompted her to create paintings that would ‘proclaim a new philosophy of life’. She then began making ‘free-flowing’ drawings, believing that spirits guided her. Her abstract art pre-dated similar work by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian. One series, *The Ten Largest*, which includes *No. 3, The Youth Age, Group IV* (1907), explores stages of life from a spiritual viewpoint. Each painting represents a different phase of human existence, such as childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. These works incorporate circles, spirals, and organic shapes, rendered in flat, radiant colours. Klint rarely exhibited her paintings. She stipulated that they should not be displayed for 20 years following her death. As a result, her work remained little known until the late twentieth century. After her death, over one hundred notebooks and sketchbooks were found, along with a dictionary of her personal symbols.When did Hilma af Klint live and work?
Hilma af Klint was a Swedish[5] painter who lived from 1862[5] to 1944[5]. Much of her childhood was spent at a Swedish naval academy, where her father, a naval officer, was stationed. Each summer, her family stayed on an island in Lake Malaren; the scenery there encouraged her to be creative. She studied and drew nature for hours. After school, af Klint became one of the first women to study at Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where she learned painting techniques. For doing well, she was given the use of an art studio. She trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm from 1887[5]. Initially, she painted naturalistic portraits and scenes. From a young age, she had been fascinated by nature and botany.Where can I see Hilma af Klint's work?
Hilma af Klint's artwork can be viewed in several museums and public collections internationally. These include institutions in Europe and North America. In Europe, her work is held at the Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark; Amos Andersonin Taidemuseo in Helsinki; Arkiv for Dekorativ Konst in Lund, Sweden; Fondation Maeght in Saint Paul de Vence, France; Fyns Stifts Kunstmuseum (Fyn County Museum of Fine Arts) in Odense, Denmark; Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna; Kunstmuseum Bern; Kunstmuseum Luzern; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark; Malmö Museum, Sweden; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo; and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. In the United States, af Klint's pieces are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cincinnati Art Museum; Cleveland Museum of Art; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.Where did hilma af klint live?
Hilma af Klint was born in Sweden and spent her early childhood at a naval academy where her father was based.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Hilma af Klint.
- [1] museum Hilma af Klint Foundation Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum Glenstone Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Maritime Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] wikidata Wikidata: Q436267 Used for: identifiers.
- [5] wikipedia Wikipedia: Hilma af Klint Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [6] book Dorling Kindersley, Artists: Inspiring Stories of the World's Most Creative Minds Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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