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Haizea Barcenilla, Profesora de Historia del Arte, Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

Hilma af Klint, a painter at the forefront of abstraction

'Evolution, No. 13, Group VI', 1908. Hilma af Klint. Rhododendrites / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Can an exhibition of work by a little-known Swedish artist change our understanding of avant-garde art? The history of early 20th-century art seems to be sufficiently set that the spectral appearance of an artist on the periphery of Europe wouldn’t change it in any way. However, the phenomenon of Hilma af Klint has opened up completely new avenues of study in our approach to abstraction.

The painter Hilma af Klint sits on a chair and looks at the camera, wearing a white blouse and a long skirt.
Portrait of Hilma af Klint in her studio at Hamngatan in Stockholm. Circa 1885. Wikimedia Commons
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