Hilma af Klint Notes and Methods
Inbunden bok. The University of Chicago Press. 2018. 288 sidor.
Nyskick. Skyddsomslag i nyskick. At the turn of the twentieth century, Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (18621944) 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. Many consider her the first trained artist to create abstract paintings. With Hilma af Klint: Notes and Methods, we get to experience the arc of Klints artistic investigation in her own words. Hilma af Klint studied at the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm where she was part of the first generation of female students. Up until the beginning of the century, she painted mainly landscapes and detailed botanical studies. Her work from this period was that of a young artist of her time who meticulously observed the world around her. But, like many of her contemporaries, af Klint was also interested in the invisible relationships that shape our world, believing strongly in a spiritual dimension. She joined the Theosophical Society, and, with four fellow female members who together called themselves The Five, began to study mediumship. Between 1906 and 1915, purportedly guided by a higher power, af Klint created 193 individual works that, in both scale and scope of imagery, are like no other art created at that time. Botanically inspired images and mystical symbols, diagrams, words and geometric series, all form part af Klints abstract language. These abstract techniques would not be seen again until years later. Notes and Methods presents facsimile reproductions of a wide array of af Klints early notebooks accompanied by the first English translation of af Klints extensive writings. It contains the rarely seen Blue Notebooks, hand-painted and annotated catalogues af Klint created of her most famous series Paintings for the Temple, and a dictionary compiled by af Klint of the words and letters found in her work. An introduction by Iris Mller-Westermann illuminates this unique and important contribution to the legacy of Hilma af Klint.
Förlagsfakta
- ISBN
- 9780226591933
- Titel
- Hilma af Klint - notes and methods
- Författare
- Klint, Hilma af
- Utgivningsår
- 2018
- Omfång
- 287 sidor
- Bandtyp
- (hardcover
- Språk
- English
- Baksidestext
- 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 twentieth-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 mediumistic drawings she created with the group of women who called themselves The Five; Flowers, Mosses, and Lichens, a spiritual explication of the plant world; and the Blue Books, 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, Notes and Methods 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--back cover.
