HILMA AF KLINT / Notes and Methods

Hilma af Klint
Notes and Methods  2018
Hardcover, 25 x 19cm
University of Chicago Press

Condition: New

With texts by Iris Müller-Westermann, edited by Christine Burgin. Translations by Kerstin Lind Bonnier, Elizabeth Clark Wessel and Anne Posten.

At the turn of the century, Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) created a body of work that left visible reality behind, exploring the radical possibilities of abstraction years before Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich or Piet Mondrian, acknowledged fathers of 20th century abstraction. Like many of her contemporaries, af Klint was interested in the invisible relationships that scientists at the turn of the century were discovering shape the world. She strongly believed in a spiritual dimension to the universe and devoted her life to an exploration of this realm.

Hilma af Klint's process of investigation took many forms and drew on systems and symbols outside the traditional language of art. Notes and Methods traces the origins of her powerful abstract work. Included are the first mediumistic drawings she created with The Five; 'Flowers, Mosses and Lichens', a spiritual explication of the plant world; and the Blue Notebooks in which af Klint catalogued her most important body of work, The Paintings for the Temple'.

'Notes and Methods' is the first extensive English translation of the writings of Hilma af Klint. In addition to translations of all notebooks reproduced, the book also includes 'Letters and Words Pertaining to Works by Hilma af Klint', an invaluable guide to the meaning behind the work compiled by Hilma af Klint herself.