Modern Mystic: Hilma af Klint

at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Hilma af Klint. Group V, The Seven-Pointed Star, №1n (Grupp V, Sjustjärnan, nr 1), 1908, from The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series (Serie WUS/Sjustjärnan). Tempera, gouache and graphite on paper mounted on canvas, 62.5 x 76 cm. The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm. Photo: Albin Dahlström, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) emerged after Europe had overturned centuries of tradition, when Western societies reduced the significance of monarchy and eschewed the combination of Church and State in favor of a progressive, secular Modern world. The “spiritual voice” became an outsider while points of prophecy became unique, marginalized endeavors that…