The Path Beyond the Visible: Part 1
Hilma af Klint, Mystic and Pioneer of Abstraction
As 21st-century democracy battles over “divisive concepts” and a light rain falls in Roanoke, I’m somewhere else. A painting and film shared by my sister Tracy cast a line back to 19th-century Sweden, and I’m following it.
A couple of decades after another small, brave woman set out to change the future in the United States, a Swedish artist and mystic was casting her own line forward into the mist. Her name was Hilma af Klint, and her pioneering work went mostly unnoticed and unsung in her lifetime. She knew that she was painting for the future. In fact, she was so sure of it that she stipulated certain works should not be shown until at least 20 years after her death.
I describe the way and meanwhile I am proceeding along it. —Hilma af Klint
Af Klint may have been the world’s first abstract artist. She painted powerful abstract works years before Kandinsky, who asserted himself as the first abstractionist yet very likely had seen Hilma’s earlier works.
She was painting for us. At recent exhibits, visitors stared at her 10-foot-tall canvases in awe. Some people had tears streaming down their faces. I couldn’t say exactly why, but even seeing the paintings on a screen, I get it. These are not works to explicate. As someone said, you experience them with your whole body. Whatever they are, they are perfectly that.
It seems fitting to make my first premium post about Hilma, whose work was all about “things invisible to see.”
I’ll still be sharing free articles here at the usual monthly (or so) pace. The paid subscription is a new venture to help fund and provoke more writing on the following themes:
Days of Future Passed: Deep dives into the lives and work of creative and cultural pioneers with connections to the present. Visionary, independent women of the 19th and early 20th centuries will take center stage, but other characters may leap from the wings now and then. I’m wide open to synchronicity and suggestions.
Thinking Heart: Critical thinking and historical truths in the service of a heart-centered life. This section title honors one of my heroes, the Dutch diarist and visionary Etty Hillesum, who strove to be "the thinking heart of a whole concentration camp." It also serves to remind me that the rational mind serves our values, either consciously or unconsciously, not the other way around.
If you “stay free,” nothing will change except that you’ll get some extra teaser posts like this one. If you do upgrade, I’ll gratefully do my best to offer engaging, meaningful content. I’d also be grateful if you shared this post with others.
P.S. To my mom’s mortification, my Grandpop Billy liked to say, “Is free? Take!” To balance out the modest $5/mo. for Things Invisible to See, check out Kanopy and IndieFlix for thoughtful film collections that may be available through your public library. Libraries are not exactly magic—smart librarians work diligently behind the scenes to tend and grow them—but they feel that way.
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