Unveiling the Storytelling Processes in the Reception of Hilma Af Klint from the 1980S and 2010S

Home , Artipelag, Hilma af Klint, Lars Nittve, Liljevalchs konsthall, Moderna Museet, Outline of Stockholm

BREAKING MYTHS!

Unveiling the storytelling processes in the reception of Hilma af Klint from the 1980s and 2010s

Anni Reponen

Department of Culture and Aesthetics Master’s thesis 45 HE credits Art History International Master’s Programme in Art History (120 credits) Spring term 2020 Supervisor: Andrea Kollnitz

BREAKING MYTHS!

Unveiling the storytelling processes in the reception of Hilma af Klint from the 1980s and 2010s

Anni Reponen

ABSTRACT

This thesis studies the critical reception of Hilma af Klint trough three exhibitions: Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (Los Angeles, 1986), Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, (Helsinki, 1988) and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (Stockholm, 2013), addressing the crucial prominent figures and voices in the discursive field around af Klint. The aim is carried out through the Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough, coupled with Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the cultural field and habitus. Judith Butler's theory of gender performance completes the theoretical framework by addressing issues of gender in both af Klint's practice as well as in the analysed critical reviews. The thesis examines how the discourses about af Klint changed during different periods of time in the 1980s and the 2010s. The central hypothesis is that this case study can be used as an example to see how the art field presents women artists as a marginal phenomenon instead of including them in the general art historical canon. But the reception of af Klint cannot be fully understood through the lens of gender; thus, e.g. the closeness to the occult is considered both as a leading mechanism in the artistic practice, creating interest towards af Klint, and as an identity which pushes her to the marginal. The results of this study lead to a better understanding of critical articles' role in the cultural phenomena's narrative creation.

Keywords: Hilma af Klint, art criticism, spiritual art, early abstract art, art historiography, the 1980s, the 2010s, Moderna Museet, Swedish art

LIST OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1. Aims and questions ...... 4 1.2. Material and delimitations ...... 6 1.3. Methodology and theoretical framework...... 8 1.4. Previous research ...... 12 1.4.1. Studies about Hilma af Klint ...... 14 1.4.2. Studies about spiritualism in art ...... 18 1.4.3. Studies about art historical theories connected to art criticism ...... 22 1.5. Outline ...... 25 2. REVISITING THE MYTHS AROUND HILMA AF KLINT ...... 28 2.1. “Not to make public sooner than twenty years after her death” – The narrative of the will ...... 37 3. “HIDDEN MEANINGS” – A CLASH BETWEEN FORMALIST AND SPIRITUAL ...... 41 3.1. The way to Los Angeles ...... 46 3.2. “Why does she have her own room?” – A wanted sample of the break of the canon ...... 49 4. THE FINNISH START ...... 58 4.1. The twofold character of af Klint – Fant’s view ...... 64 4.2. “A footnote in Swedish art history” – The refusal of inclusion in the late 1980s ...... 69 5. A NEW APPROACH – MODERNA MUSEET ...... 78 5.1. A provocative pioneer – Aims and themes of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction ...... 85 5.2. The critic on the canonised preoccupations – The reception of A Pioneer of Abstraction ...... 91 6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 99 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES ...... 106 Printed sources...... 106 Internet sources ...... 110 Non printed sources ...... 111 List of Illustrations ...... 112 Appendix I: Used materials for the discourse analysis ...... 113 Appendix II: Selected list of the prominent figures mentioned in the thesis ...... 115 Appendix III: Maaretta Jaukkuri in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 22nd of October 2019 ...... 116 Appendix IV: Ulf Wagner in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020 ...... 121 Appendix V: Iris Müller-Westermann in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020 ...... 126

Figure 1. HILMA AF KLINT - The Swan no. 17. Group IX, The SUW/UW Series, 1915 Oil on canvas, 155 x 152 cm By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet

1. INTRODUCTION

---He took me to the old barn or a storage room nearby of the Anthroposophist Centre in Järna. It was a grey and gloomy autumn day in October. We went into the barn, he took a box, opened it, and started to take the rolls out. I was about to faint just there. I had never seen such a thing. ---1

This is the way the art historian and the former head of the exhibitions of the Nordic Arts Centre, Maaretta Jaukkuri (b. 1944), describes her encounter with the painting Swan no. 17 (1907) (Figure

1 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen on 22nd of October 2019.

1.) by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944). During a conversation with her in November 2019, Jaukkuri tells me a memory of autumn 1987, when she was led to the barn outside of Stockholm by Stockholm University Professor of art history Åke Fant (1943-1997), who then had researched af Klint from the beginning of the 1970s.2

The memory of Jaukkuri combines themes principal to my dissertation, which provides an analysis of Hilma af Klint’s reception in the 1980s and the 2010s. The joy of discovery, which filled Jaukkuri in the barn of Järna, has also teased many other researchers and art historians among the years. The paintings tickled the imagination of reviewers, public and specialists in the 1980s at the exhibition Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, held in Los Angeles in 1986; later the same happened in the solo tour Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988-1989. Then again, in the 2010s the extensive retrospective exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction opened its doors at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2013 and brought the artist to a level of international acknowledgement still perceivable today. In autumn 2018, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opened the most visited retrospective exhibition of the museum’s history, carrying the name Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future.

Additionally, the story of Fant taking Jaukkuri to see the paintings in the barn in Järna – which later led to the first solo exhibition of the artist – is telling about the path of historiographical influences and the social connections of art historians involved in the field of af Klint. The story shows how the hidden artworks of a nearly unknown artist made their way from the barn of Järna to be part of the permanent collection of Moderna Museet.3 The collaboration, contact and enthusiasm of different figures such as Fant and Jaukkuri, pushed af Klint closer to the artistic institutionalisation and – as it has been expressed - to break the canon, i.e. the agreed narrative of art history.

It seems relevant here to explore the ways in which af Klint broke the canon, exemplifying the article “Hilma who? No more!”, by art critic and journalist Roberta Smith on the New York Times in October 2018. Like many others, this article discusses how af Klint achieved the breakthrough of abstract art by painting her famous series Paintings for the Temple between the years 1906 and 1915, before the canonised pioneers of abstraction, such as Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Smith’s joy could be summarised in four words: “Woman got there first.”, Smith declared.4

2 Daniel Birnbaum: “Afterword”, Hilma af Klint: The Art of Seeing Invisible, ed. Kurt Almqvist and Louise Belfrage, (London: Koening books, 2015): 271. 3 “About”, Hilma af Klint Foundation, last visited 19th August 2020, https://www.hilmaafklint.se/en/about-hilma-af-klint/. The paintings belong to the Hilma af Klint Foundation, but in 2018, the Foundation and Moderna Museet signed a long- term contract confirming a permanent showroom of Hilma af Klint’s paintings at the museum. 4 Roberta Smith: “”Hilma who?” No more!”, The New York Times, 12th October 2018, 15.

Today, Hilma af Klint is indeed an attribution to the feminist manifesto. In a word, where an artist – and even a human – has been seen equal as a man, the understanding of the capacity of women to make forerunning inventions is a boost of self-confidence.5 And there is a reason for that. As the researcher of gender studies at Stockholm University, Vanja Hermele argues in her book Konsten - så funkar det (inte), the art world has long placed itself outside of the gender and equality discourses, using an argument about the objective freedom of expression. In that way, the field has reinforced the masculine assignation of cultural heritage.6 Because of this attitude, although women’s representation in the artistic field has increased, problems such as glass ceiling or general inclusion have stayed the same.

Certainly, even though af Klint’s art has been looked at through the lens of gender, the interpretation of her art must also be made through knowledge about spirituality. The experience of astonishment is one example: as the painter af Klint has been capable of capturing the interest of many. This feeling of astonishment has led many researchers to continue the investigation of the artist, whose connections to the spiritual and disqualification of the material were the key elements in her oeuvre. Even though af Klint was an abstract painter, she did not think that of herself.7 She was a seeker of a union with the universe and expressed it through her artistic practices. At the same time when Kandinsky wrote his theoretical book On the Spiritual in Art (1912), scientifically analysing his artistic practice, af Klint jumped into the spiritual and took it as her home.

This homecoming to the spiritual has resulted in paintings which create feelings in the viewer’s backbone, including my own. In the halls of the permanent collection of Moderna Museet, The Ten Greatest no. 7. (1907) hanging on the wall of Millesgården, or even seeing the pages of Hilma af Klint – Visionary (2019) or watching the movie Beyond the Visible – Hilma af Klint (2019) by Halina Dyrschka, I cannot do anything else than admire the works of the Swedish artist. I want to give to my readers the same experience by providing some images of the painter’s oeuvre, which I consider to be also crucial in regard to the reception of Hilma af Klint.

As my aim in this thesis is to consider the reception of Hilma af Klint and not to forget the background and possible motifs of the authors, I must consider my own motifs as well. To be honest, my initiation point to start this thesis was not Hilma af Klint, but an article by Boris Groys “Under the Gaze of Theory”, from 2012, which I encountered while reading the eFlux magazine for my Bachelor thesis

5 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversions of the Identity. (New York: Routledge, 1990): 8-13. 6 Vanja Hermele, Konsten – så funkar det (inte), (Stockholm: KRO, 2009), 10. 7 Ulf Wagner in conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020.

research. Groys’ article discussed the state of art criticism claiming it to be only promotion.8 I do not know why exactly, but this claim seemed to me cruel and depressing – perhaps by the realisation of the ruling capitalistic means of the art world, which my innocent mind had not yet captured. Nevertheless, my head started to formulate dozens of questions, where the most important was: “What is going on with art criticism?”

In the investigation of art criticism, Hilma af Klint is the perfect case. She can hardly be considered responsible for the current perception of her own image, and this gives the perfect opportunity to investigate the work of art historians. Above everything, this dissertation is historiographical research, where I hope to acknowledge the work of the specialists in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. Yet it is needless to say that as an art historian and a feminist, my responsibility is still to question the narratives told by the agreed authorities there where I see the need to it.

In conclusion, this dissertation aims to provide some new insights about the myths and narratives surrounding Hilma af Klint, as well as about the historiographical work in it. The historiographical body of work about the artist has not been studied to this extent before; therefore, this thesis will address this gap by considering both art criticism and the aims and organisation in the curatorial practices of the chosen displays in the analysis.

1.1. Aims and questions

The overarching aim of this study is to investigate the reception, the storytelling, and historiographical positioning of Hilma af Klint after her death in 1944. With this, I do not mean only the personal biography of the artist, but most importantly, the discourse emerging around her artistic work between the years 1986 and 2013. It is a comparative research study, focusing on the reception of the exhibitions: The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890 – 1985, between 1986 and 1987; The Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, at Nordic Arts Centre, Helsinki in 1988 and PS1., New York in 1989; and the tour of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction between 2013 and 2015. I consider that the investigation of the reception is crucial in understanding the narratives which have been created around Hilma af Klint.

8 Boris Groys. “Under the Gaze of Theory” eFlux journal. Vol. 35. 2012. http://www.eflux.com/journal/35/68389/under- the-gaze-of-theory/.

The main research questions are:

● Why did Hilma af Klint rise in the international acknowledgement in the middle of the 2010s? How did this rise differ from the wave of interest in the 1980s?

● How have the discourses about Hilma af Klint changed through time comparing the late 1980s and the early 2010s?

● How have the roles of the central agents in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint influenced the reception of her oeuvre?

As the questions show, the aim of this dissertation can be divided into two parts. The first is to investigate the reception of Hilma af Klint’s art in two exhibitions in the 1980s, and in one exhibition in 2013. I chose the time period following the displays of the Paintings for the Temple. The first known public presentation of these paintings was in Los Angeles in 1986, and one of the most crucial exhibitions was the exhibition in Moderna Museet in 2013, which later led to the enormous internationalisation of the artist, and finally to the solo exhibition of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future in 2018. In the analysis of the critical reception, and in highlighting the possible leading topics in the discourse, the aspects such as the year, geographical location and the type of the publications are taken especially into account.

The second aim is to understand, which are the principal elements in the curatorial, critical, and social processes leading finally to the international acknowledgement of the artist. This aim includes understanding the objectives of each exhibition and the image these displays bring about af Klint. The aim is carried out by understanding especially the social connections between the different prominent figures inside of the discourse about Hilma af Klint. For this aim, I have collected the archival material, which consists of the letter and email exchanges between curators and specialists involved in each exhibition. Additionally, some floor plans and protocols support the analysis of each exhibition’s aims. Personal interviews complete the archival material.

To fulfil these aims, the analysis of the critical reception is carried out through the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Norman Fairclough, combined with Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the cultural field, and the theory of the gender performance by Judith Butler. The initial hypothesis is first that the prominent figures inside of the discourse affect the development of the storytelling and myth of the artist, and it is possible to spot some overarching agents, who affect the discourse the most. The second hypothesis is that Hilma af Klint’s case can be used as an example of how art institutions and

art criticism present women artists as a marginal phenomenon instead of including them in the general art historical canon. Additionally, the role of the spiritualism is art is considered, and it is reflected through the current art critical and theoretical tendencies of each period.

1.2. Material and delimitations

The primary research material of this thesis consists of the three exhibition catalogues, art critical reviews, letter and email exchange, exhibition plans, and personal interviews, as well as one lecture. This material is collected from the Finnish National Library in Helsinki, The Donner Institute in Turku, Finland, the Swedish Royal Library, the Moderna Museet archives in Stockholm, and The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen. Besides, I read and used secondary sources, and completing material, which are mentioned in section 1.4., “Previous Research”, of this dissertation. The language of the material is limited to three languages of my knowledge: Finnish, English, and Swedish. In the case of the reviews, if the language is other than English, I have included the original citation in the footnotes. The translations are done carefully in order to avoid any possible misinterpretations.

To complete the first aim, to investigate the reception of Hilma af Klint’s art from 1986 to 2013, I have collected and analysed the critical reviews from selected publications, forming the most extensive material of the dissertation, with 28 reviews. The articles from the Finnish theosophist magazine Takoja and the Finnish art magazine Taide were collected from the Finnish National Library. The Swedish Royal Library played the main role depositing the material from the newspapers of Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, Hufvudstadsbladet, and Sydsveska Dagbladet. Moreover, I collected material from the digital archives of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Kunstkritikk, Helsingin Sanomat, The New Criterion and Frieze. Moreover, I used the article of the Swedish-American newspaper Nordstjernan-Svea, which I found from the Danish National Archives. The complete list of the analysed articles is found in Appendix I.

In order to understand the sources and storytelling patterns of the reviews, I have used the catalogue of each exhibition as background material. These catalogues are The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986), Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint (1988) and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (2013). Also, I have used some selected articles from the figures who have either

participated in the execution of the display or have had a position of an expert in them. The completing articles are by Åke Fant in Svenska Dagbladet from 1986 and Taide in 1988, and by Daniel Birnbaum Dagens Nyheter and in Artforum in 2013. These articles are not counted as exhibition reviews but as informative articles about the artist, which complete my view, how the prominent figures of the exhibitions aimed to present af Klint. The catalogues and the articles mentioned are also part of the previous research, which is indeed used as background material. However, these catalogues and articles mentioned are in a crucial position in understanding the question, how Hilma af Klint was pictured these exhibitions, and how the most significant figures reviewed her.

As the second aim, is to understand the curatorial and social practices around each exhibition, the material contains email and letter exchange between the agents and institutions involved in each exhibition, as well as some exhibition plans. This material consists of the protocols of the Donner Institute to complete the information about the exhibition Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890- 1995; the letter exchange and project plans of the Nordic Arts Centre to give information about the exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, collected from the Danish National Archives; and the email exchange and the project plans about the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, collected from the Moderna Museet archives. Moreover, in order to understand the broader picture of the exhibition, I had three interviews: in person with the former head of the exhibitions of the Nordic Arts Centre Maaretta Jaukkuri and by video calls with the former director of the Hilma af Klint Foundation Ulf Wagner and with the director of Moderna Museet Malmö and the curator of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, Iris Müller-Westermann. These interviews were semi- structured, lasting circa one hour and later transcribed. Moreover, the interview with Jaukkuri is translated from Finnish to English. The transcriptions of these interviews are available in the Appendices III, IV and V. This material is used mainly in chapters three, four and five.

This study is comparative research about the reception of Hilma af Klint in the late 1980s and early 2010s, and the delimitations of this thesis are both geographical and historical. Since this is a comparative investigation of two different eras: 1986-1989 and 2013-2015, the time period between 1990 to 2012 will not be discussed, in a similar amount. Thus, e.g. the exhibition organised in 1999 in Liljevalch Konsthall, The Paintings for the Temple, is not discussed. However, the material produced along with the 1990s and early 2000s is considered in chapter two, which aims to map background on the myths, i.e. the type of speech chosen by the history of af Klint. The geographical limitation is concentrating only on three countries: The United States of America, Sweden and Finland in the chapters 3 and 4, but also some mentions and reviews are taken from the UK for chapter

5, in order to understand the broader international phenomenon of the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction.

1.3. Methodology and theoretical framework

This study is based on the comparative and qualitative analysis of the aims and organisational processes of the selected exhibitions of Hilma af Klint and their reception. The analysis is divided into three main sections, chapters three, four and five, which are each divided into three subsections: the analysis of the aims of the exhibition and the social connections between the agents involved, and the reception of the exhibition. These chapters are compared with each other in order to understand the development of the discourse of Hilma af Klint within the chosen time frame, the late 1980s and the early 2010s. Chapter two is a qualitative and comparative analysis which revisits the different myths of Hilma af Klint. The aim of this chapter is to give the background to the objectives of the exhibitions under the analysis.

To understand and spot the correlations and influence between the different agents, I have used the text-based analysis of the archival documents primarily, in combination with interviews. These are semi-structured interviews, where some of the questions are set from the beginning, but they are still flexible to accommodate the evolution of the conversation. The questions asked considered on the work of each agent and their knowledge of the historiographical practice inside of the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. To understand the social connections and the inclusion of the specific agents in the discourse of af Klint, I have analysed the patterns of certain discursive structures. Accordingly, the analysis of the reception of Hilma af Klint is done using the text-based reviews where I searched for these discursive patterns and expressions, bearing in mind the influence and position of the specific agents in the conversation. In both types of analyses, the understanding and questioning of the normative roles of gender, what the artist might possess, plays an essential part.

In this study, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as developed by Norman Fairclough, is the key method and theory to understand and analyse the reception of af Klint. The theory of CDA by Fairclough is built around the concept of discourse, and understanding it as a social practice, which is socially shaped and can be shaped by society. Fairclough argues that discourse is a socially and historically situated mode of action, where social connections and the historical and cultural

background can affect language use. Similarly, language use affects identities, beliefs, and social relations. This, Fairclough calls constitutive language use.9

In my dissertation, I aim to analyse this language in the discursive events of Hilma af Klint, and the broader social and cultural structures and processes inside of this discourse. Fairclough bases this method on the theory of cultural hegemony by Antonio Gramsci, which is coupled with the concept of interdiscursivity, modelled upon the concept of the intertextuality by Julia Kristeva.10 According to CDA, the discursive events often combine several types of discourse, for example, different perspectives, e.g. the patriarchal or feminist discourse about Hilma af Klint, and different genres, meaning, in the case of this dissertation, the letters, emails, or exhibition reviews. This Fairclough calls interdiscursivity.11 In the theory of the cultural hegemony, Gramsci argues that social beliefs, values, and perceptions are manipulated according to the ideologies of the dominant class. Fairclough sees that the use of CDA unveils the totality of the discursive practices and the institutions and relationships between them. This, he calls the order of discourse.12

In the case of my dissertation, the use of CDA aims to unveil the discursive patterns inside of the field of Hilma af Klint. This method is used primarily in the analysis of the critical articles written about the exhibitions Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 in 1986, The Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988 and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013.

CDA is combined with the sociological concept of the cultural field by Pierre Bourdieu, which is explained in his book, The Rules of Art (1996). Bourdieu originates his sociological theory from Gustave Faubert’s novel Sentimental Education (1869), and through this novel, he understood the ambition among artists within different social spaces, affected by the political and economic power of the dominant class, calling it a literary field.13 From this, Bourdieu develops his concept of the cultural field, where different agents compete for legitimacy within the field. This success is dependent on their social or cultural capital, which he calls habitus.14 The cultural fields c limit together and possess different cultural capital compared to each other.15 This relationship between the habitus and the fields is fundamental in order to understand the social, political and economic

9 Norman Fairclough,”Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: the universities”, Discourse & Society, vol. 14, no. 2, 1993, 134. 10 Ibidem, 137. 11 Ibidem, 137. 12 Ibidem, 138. 13 Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field, trans. Susan Emanuel, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 47-49 14 Ibidem, e.g. 83-85. 15 Ibidem, 142.

structures of power in the field of Hilma af Klint. In my dissertation, this field could be understood as discursive, where different agents such as curators, art critics and art historical specialists are creating discursive events around af Klint. Also, the institutions, such as The Los Angeles County Museum, Moderna Museet, The Nordic Arts Centre and PS1 could be considered as individual agents with their interests and aims as well as their unequal cultural capital.

Thus, in this dissertation, I use the concept of discursive field, which has emerged from the combination of the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis by Fairclough and the concept of the cultural field by Bourdieu. This methodological and theoretical couple is completed by the theory of gender performativity by Judith Butler. These theories complete the method to understand the agents of power within the discursive field of Hilma af Klint and the use of language, which is shaped by the questioning of the normativity of gender.

Post-humanist feminism and queer theory, more precisely the theory of gender as a performance by Butler is the key to understand and the question the patriarchal and binary norms within the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. Butler comes to her theory disagreeing with the feminist theories’ assumptions that the subject of women denotes a universal identity, which does not differ within the culture, ethnic group, geographical location, time period, sexual orientation or individual preferences.16 She bases her theory on the suggestion of Simone de Beauvoir that “one is not born a woman, rather becomes one”, a.k.a the argument of Beauvoir that gender is constructed; and the argument by Luce Irigaray of on exclusion of women because of the use of phallocentric language a.k.a the false universal of “man”, which mean the presuppose that manhood is coextensive with the humanness itself.17

Butler starts her argument with the differentiation of the biological sex and the social gender, which Butler agrees on, but she adds that they both are historically constructed and bodily experienced, and because of this it is impossible to conclude, where the sex of an individual is based.18 Also, she raises the problematics of their binary division and sees that, e.g. socially constructed gender of “woman” is not necessarily performed in a female body.19 Her theory of gender performativity, she bases on the phenomenological theories (e.g. Julia Kristeva, Maurice Merleau-Ponty), which seek to explain how agents constitute social reality through language, gestures and symbolic social signs.20 In the end,

16 Butler, Gender Trouble, 3. 17 Ibidem, 8-13. See also Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and, Gender Constitution” in The Art of Art History, ed. Donald Preziosi, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 360. 18 Ibidem, 358. See also Butler, Gender Trouble, 6. 19 Ibidem, 6. 20 Butler, “Performative Acts and, Gender Constitution”, 356.

Butler argues, that gender identity is constituted through a stylised repetition of acts. Thus, gender is constructed by various acts of gender, and without those acts, there would not be gender at all.21 Therefore, the body becomes a gender through this repetition of acts.22

Butler argues that these acts wear certain cultural significations and attributions, and finally, the performance is affected by the strategic aims of maintaining gender within its binary frame.23 On the other hand, she sees that this performance is the result of the political, social and historical interests which could differ according to the environment of the performance, e.g. a show of a drag queen on stage could cause admiration and applauses, but the same drag queen sitting on the seat of the bus can cause rage, fear and even violence. With this, Butler exemplifies that gender performance is not a role, but a reality of one’s identity.24

Butler’s theory of gender performativity is used to spot traditional narratives linked to the gender of a woman. Luce Irigaray’s theory of the false universal of “man” is the crucial concept in understanding the treatment of the historical narratives in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. By this, I mean that af Klint’s gender performance followed certain gendered norms of a woman of her time, e.g., being humble and isolating. Later this performance of af Klint is interpreted through the lens of reviews either verifying or questioning the gender performance of the artist. However, as a limitation, I will not discuss af Klint’s personal perception of her gender or sexuality, but rather see how the performance of gender has influenced the image of her.

Butler’s theory completes my theoretical framework with the theories of CDA and the cultural field by Bourdieu. The combination of these theories is fundamental, especially in the analysis of the reception of a woman painter, who has suffered a marginal position partially because of the assumption of the universality of the male gender. The theory of gender performance is applied equally to see af Klint’s gender performance in her own time, and analyse its effects against the receiving society, and seek the symbols of normative or equally non-normative gender performance. I consider that in the analysis of a woman artist, this perception is fundamental to understand the discursive patterns and perceptions of different agents inside of the discursive field fully.

21 Ibidem, 358. 22 Ibidem, 359. 23 Ibidem, 363. 24 Ibidem, 362.

Figure 2. HILMA AF KLINT - The Silence Group I, No.6, 1907 Oil on Canvas, 164x148cm By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation

1.4. Previous research

In this section, I discuss the studies which are relevant to my dissertation either in methodological or thematical ways. The reception of Hilma af Klint has been studied in one academic text before, the master’s thesis of Mia Körling at Södertörn University, “Konstnär eller medium? Andlighet och konst i receptionen av Hilma af Klint”, from 2011. Köring’s thesis analyses how spirituality appears in the

reception of Hilma af Klint, starting from the first public display, The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985.25 The thesis is written in Swedish, and this makes my dissertation the first full study about the reception of Hilma af Klint written in English. I consider this an inevitable and beneficial step in the work of internationalisation of the artist. Moreover, Köring’s thesis covers the events before 2011; my dissertation, however, aims to broaden the horizon of the reflection by comparing the effects of the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, executed in 2013, to the events in the 1980s. The historiography in the field of Hilma af Klint has never been studied to this extent.

As my study is concentrated on the reception of Hilma af Klint, it will focus on two main time periods: the period of fin-de-siècle, contemporary to af Klint, and the time during the reception of af Klint, which in my dissertation is framed between the 1980s and 2010s. Therefore, I have divided my section of previous research into three subsections, which are aiming to cover these periods thematically and methodologically. Section 1.4.1. will discuss the reception object, the artist, via the presentation of essential prominent figures in the research about af Klint. As my dissertation is based on the influence and relationships of different agents in discourses around Hilma af Klint, it seems necessary, for the sake of clarity, to present some of them, whom I consider being the most important ones for this work, and whose names will appear regularly throughout the dissertation. However, only the figures relevant to this research will be mentioned. The full list of the prominent figures mentioned throughout the thesis is found in Appendix II. As the artistry of af Klint touches the topics of early abstract art and spirituality in art, I include these themes into the section 1.4.2., which is generally discussing the investigations of the spiritual in art during the fin-de-siècle.

Finally, my third section, 1.4.3. concerns art criticism and the art theoretical tendencies, which I consider have affected the reception of the artist. This is done by following the Western theoretical and art critical tendencies, which might be useful to understand in order to analyse the reception of Hilma af Klint. In this section, I also explain some central concepts which I will use throughout my thesis, such as art historical canon and myth.

25 Mia Körling, “Konstnär eller medium? Andlighet och konst i receptionen av Hilma af Klint” (Master diss. Södertörn University, 2011), 4.

1.4.1. Studies about Hilma af Klint

The interest towards Hilma af Klint has risen exponentially in the academic and artistic fields during the last decade, but still, the academic work about her is fragmented, and the full biographs written by one author are a rarity. However, along the years, it is viable to raise some prominent names, influencing the investigation of af Klint.

Since the death of af Klint in 1944, her oeuvre has been catalogued or investigated. Nevertheless, in the beginning, only by the selected group of specialists. Thus, during the first decades, the investigation was nearly inexistent, considering mostly the cataloguing and photography of af Klint’s art by her personal secretary, Olof Sundström. Additionally, it could be testified that some intentions to present the collection to the institutions has made by the nephew of Hilma af Klint, Erik. In the late 1960s, he intended to present the oeuvre of af Klint to Moderna Museet without success.26 Sundström was an educated artist, who decided to work for her artistry, and stayed as her secretary during the last years of her life.27 His cataloguing and photography of the paintings are used still today in order to sort out and understand the oeuvre of af Klint, and it has been applied as a primary material for the later researchers.28 In 1972, The Hilma af Klint Foundation was founded by Erik af Klint, and since the beginning, the Professor of art history at Stockholm University Åke Fant was included as a board member of the Foundation. Fant continued as the member of the board until 1992.29

Fant was possibly one of the most influential agents in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. His extensive research and interest in af Klint were the speeding mechanisms bringing other agents to the artist. Besides being a professor at Stockholm University, he embraced connections to the Foundation and the Anthroposophist Society in Sweden. His name has appeared in many of the reviews, interviews, and other researched material along this thesis process. As far as we know, Fant started visibly to investigate af Klint during the beginning of 1980s, and his first public presentation of the artist happened at the conference “Fin-de-siècle in Finland” in 1984.30

26 Lars Nittve ”Förord”, in Hilma af Klint: Ockult målarinna och abstrakt pionjär ed. Åke Fant (Stockholm: Raster Förlag, 1989), 5. Erik af Klint presented the artworks to Moderna Museet in the late 1970s together with Åke Fant. This is e.g. mentioned by Lars Nittve. 27 Lecture by Gertrud Sandqvist,’”I immediately said Yes” - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time”, HISK Higher Institute for Fine Arts, 15th April 2020. 28 Fant, Hilma af Klint: Ockult målarinna och abstrakt pionjär, 10. Åke Fant mentions the work of Sundström to be crucial in his own investigation. 29 Ulf Wagner in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020. 30 Birnbaum, “Afterword”, 271.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Fant published several articles and texts about af Klint, a majority in Finnish and Swedish publications.31 His main work is a massive monograph, Hilma af Klint (1989). Fant’s significant achievements were the detailed investigation about the biography and oeuvre of af Klint, and his work to make the artist visible to the audience: Fant curated the first solo tour, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988-1989. During the intensive investigation period in the 1980s, Fant examined the notebooks, which the artist had left behind, as well as the personal letters, which contain the central ideas about af Klint’s oeuvre. For example, the facts about af Klint’s communications with the spirits, and the contact with Steiner, were first investigated by Fant.

Besides of The Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Fant participated in the catalogue of the first display of Hilma af Klint in Los Angeles, Spirituality in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, an exhibition which was organised a couple of years earlier in 1986. This exhibition, curated by the American curator Maurice Tuchman (b.1936), was the display, where the public discourse about the artist could be said to have started. Tuchman’s role in the investigation of the spiritual in early abstract art is crucial, and it will be discussed in chapter 1.4.2. Also, Fant’s article in the catalogue, “The Case of the Artist Hilma af Klint”, was the first published article in English about the artist.32

The Finnish art historian Sixten Ringbom (1935-1992) was also involved in the exhibition of Los Angeles as an expert of Nordic Art. Ringbom was one of the prominent figures in the 1980s, who had social connections as well as knowledge about the spiritual tendencies during fin-de-siècle. His investigation about the spirituality in Kandinsky’s art, The Sounding Cosmos (1970), brought him to contact with Tuchman. Ringbom was in close contact with Fant, and as far as we know, the collaboration made him recommend af Klint’s inclusion in Los Angeles’ exhibition.33 He also mentions af Klint in the article of the Los Angeles’ catalogue, “Transcending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Pioneers”. Ringbom concentrates on the interpretation of af Klint’s expressions of sexuality in her art. In here, he uses as an example, the painting The Silence, (1907) (Figure 2.) presenting the sexual union of the figures, indicated by the geometric symbols.

All in all, in the exhibition of Los Angeles, the main aim was to present Hilma af Klint as an example of an artist, who made similar abstract artistic conclusions in isolation as her contemporary colleagues in European art circles. Later, Ringbom published the same article in his book, Det ytliga djupet

31Åke Fant, “Det andliga i 1900-talets konst”, Svenska Dagbladet. 3rd January 1987, 14. Åke Fant, ”Hilma af Klintin maalauksista”, Taide. Vol. 3. 1988. 32 Maurice Tuchman, “Hidden Meanings in Abstract Art”, in Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985. Ed. Maurice Tuchman (Los Angeles: Abbelville Press, 1986), 38. 33 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen on 22nd of November 2019. See also Ulf Wagner in conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020.

(1989), mentioning the same arguments. Both Fant and Ringbom connected af Klint to spiritual tendencies in the 1980s. Ringbom’s and Fant’s investigations are my essential reference when analysing the review articles, especially from the 1980s, as they have initially influenced the reviewers’ perception of the artist.

In 1980, another exhibition where Hilma af Klint was presented, was in Helsinki in autumn 1987. The exhibition catalogue Nordic Concrete Art, Hilma af Klint is presented briefly in the article “Swedish Concrete Art”, written by the Swedish art historian Folke Lalander. The exhibition secretary of Secret Pictures of Hilma af Klint, and the head of the exhibitions of the Nordic Arts Centre Maaretta Jaukkuri, edited the catalogue. Jaukuri could be considered one of the influential figures of the 1980s when spreading the field of af Klint in the international context. Her work as a curator who has internationalised a Finnish and Nordic cultural field is recognised broadly.

The 1990s started with the solo exhibition of af Klint’s artworks at Moderna Museet. The exhibition is said to continue the tour of Secret Pictures of Hilma af Klint.34 However, Fant wrote for this exhibition another catalogue, called Hilma af Klint: Occult painter and abstract pioneer (1989), so in this dissertation, the exhibition of Moderna Museet is treated as a separate display. Another researcher of the decade was the Finnish Gurli Lindén (b. 1940), who interpreted Hilma af Klint mainly as a religious painter. For example, the little booklet I Describe the Way, and Meanwhile, I am Proceeding Along It (1998), written by Lindén, is a description of the Swedish painter’s work from an esoteric perspective. This was one of the first intentions to describe the symbolism of her artworks after Åke Fant on a deeper level. Another great event of the 1990s was the exhibition at Liljevalch, held in 1999, which later travelled to the Museum of Wäinö Aaltonen in Turku. Folke Lalander and Anna Maija Svensson wrote the catalogue for the exhibition Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Temple (1999). By reason of the period, which is framed out of my dissertation, only Lindén’s work is used in chapter two as background material.

Some of the reviewers who were writing on the exhibitions Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890- 1985 or Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in the 1980s, continued the investigation further, starting the new era of research in the 2000s. One of the most prominent names in the field is the art historian and the current rector of Malmö Art Academy, Gertrud Sandqvist. Through the years, Sandqvist has written many articles about the artist, as well as curated two exhibitions.35 In 2013, Sandqvist curated

34 Gustaf af Klint, “Foreword”, in I Describe the Way and Meanwhile, I am Proceeding Along It. Ed. Gurli Lindén, (Södertälje: Rosengårdens Förlag, 1998), 9. 35 e g. Gertrud Sandqvist. ”Målningar till templet”, Hufvudstadsbladet. 13th August 1988, 5.

the exhibition I Strömmen (English. In the Stream) in Lund’s Art Hall, which was done in collaboration with the contemporary artists influenced by af Klint. The catalogue of this exhibition I Stömmen (2013) is used as background material in chapter two. Later, in 2015, Sandqvist also curated the exhibition Ann Edholm Meets Hilma af Klint in the Galerie Nordenhanke, which presented a similar idea as I Strömmen. Sandqvist is mostly known for her investigation with the notebooks of af Klint. Her name is mentioned often along with the dissertation, as she is a long-term specialist in the field of Hilma af Klint. The online-lecture of her; ‘"I immediately said Yes" - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time” held on the 15th of April 2020 by HISK Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Belgium is used as a background material of this dissertation.

The exhibition at Moderna Museet in 2013, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, generated a new interest towards the artist. The extensive work of Iris Müller-Westermann (b.1955) started a new discourse about the oeuvre of Hilma af Klint, concentrating on her pioneering character in fin-de- siècle. The catalogue Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, edited by Müller-Westermann and Jo Widoff, is crucial in understanding the turn of the narrative in the 2010s. After this exhibition, the interest in af Klint raised exponentially and caused the new wave of interest towards the artist. In many further publications, the essential was the participation of the former director of Moderna Museet, Daniel Birnbaum (b. 1963), who also co-curated the exhibition, Hilma af Klint – Painting the Unseen at the Serpentine Galleries, London in 2016. The monographs, written by many authors, were done mostly with the collaboration of the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation and editors Louise Belfrage and Kurt Almqvist. These monographs are mainly used as background material in chapter two. 36 Birnbaum also wrote several articles about af Klint in the Swedish newspapers, as well as specialised magazines such as in Artforum and Svenska Dagbladet. These articles of Birnbaum are analysed further in chapter four. From these catalogues, I mostly concentrate on the writings of Birnbaum but also texts of the British art historian Briony Fer and the German journalist and researcher Julia Voss.37

Gertrud Sandqvist, ”Gåtfullt och strålande universum”, Kunstkritikk, 25th of March 2014, https://kunstkritikk.se/gatfullt- och-stralande-universum/. 36 At least following monographs, written by many authors, have been published after 2013: Daniel Birnbaum ed. Hilma af Klint - Painting the Unseen. (London: Koening Books, 2016). Kurt Almqvist and Louse Belfrage ed. Hilma af Klint: The Art of Seeing Invisible. (London: Koening books, 2015). Kurt Almqvist and Louise Belfrage ed. Hilma af Klint, Seeing is Believing. (London: Koening Books, 2017). Tracey Baskhoff ed. Hilma af Klint - Paintings for the Future. (New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications U.S., 2018). Kurt Almqvist and Louse Belfrage. ed. Hilma af Klint - Visionary (Stockholm: Bokförläget Stolpe, 2019). 37 e.g. Briony Fer, “Hilma af Klint, Diagrammer” in Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future. Ed. Almiqvist and Belfrage, 164-169. Briony Fer. “The Bigger Picture” Frieze. Issue 2. (October 2013), https://www.frieze.com/article/bigger-picture-0.

Voss could be estimated to be one of the most influential names in the contemporary field of Hilma af Klint. She has published several articles or collaborated in various exhibition catalogues in the 2010s.38 Voss’ work is crucial in my dissertation in understanding the myths of the artist and the possible faults and new findings of the investigation, which have influenced the patterns of narrative in the exhibitions and their reviews. Her investigation of the travels of af Klint has changed the image of the artist’s character and her intentions about her main work, Paintings for the Temple, crucially. In April 2020, Voss published a biography of af Klint, carrying the original German name, Die Menschheit in Erstaunen versetzen: Hilma af Klint – Biographie, which I have not been able to read as the English version is still in the process while writing this dissertation. However, with this monograph, a circle is closed, Voss’ book is the first biography written about af Klint by one author since Fant’s book Hilma af Klint was published in 1989.

To conclude this section, I position myself in this research. I consider my dissertation as an investigation, which aims to describe, unveil and analyse the narratives and myths written about Hilma af Klint. Although her oeuvre and biography has been investigated broadly, the historiography of the cultural field of af Klint has never been investigated in this extent. I consider that unveiling the certain myths of af Klint can bring a better understanding of Hilma af Klint’s character and aims in her art.

1.4.2. Studies about spiritualism in art

This section focuses on the investigations about spiritualism in art and early abstract art during the fin-de-siècle. The investigations could be divided into three sections. The first is the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century when abstract art has been estimated to be born. The second wave of investigation is the rise of new interest in the postmodern era, precisely in this dissertation, meaning the 1980s, and the third wave is the contemporary spiritual interest of the 2010s. I have gathered investigations from each of these periods, which I considered useful in my dissertation.

38 e g. Julia Voss, “The first abstract artist? (And it's not Kndinsky)”, Tate Etc. Issue 27. (Spring, 2013), https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-27-spring-2013/first-abstract-artist-and-its-not-kandinsky. Julia Voss, “The Evolution of Art”, in Hilma af Klint - Painting the Unseen. Ed. Birnbaum, 21-34. Julia Voss, “The traveling Hilma af Klint”, in Hilma af Klint - Paintings for the Future, Ed. Baskhoff, 49-63. Julia Voss, “Five things to know about Hilma af Klint”, in Hilma af Klint - Visionary. Ed. Almqvist and Belfrage, 21-40.

This chapter is based on information by Maurice Tuchman, from the catalogue Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986), where Hilma af Klint’s religious paintings were presented for the first time The exhibition could be considered ground-breaking, as it connected early abstract art to the spiritual tendencies in art. In his article of the catalogue, “Hidden Meaning in Abstract Art”, Tuchman reveals the spiritual meaning behind early abstract art.39 This catalogue is mainly used in chapter three, but its knowledge about spiritual tendencies is also used in the understanding of the circumstances contemporary to af Klint. However, even though The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 was a ground-breaking exhibition in the postmodern era, Maurice Tuchman admits that the idea to join the occult and artistic practice was not new.40

Also, the book of the Finnish Doctor of Philosophy at University of Turku Nina Kokkinen, Totuudenetsijät (2019) (English: Searchers of the Truth), is used, as background material to understand the spiritual tendencies in the Nordic Countries.

One of the most significant studies about the connection between occult and artistic practice, which I am going to use in this thesis, is Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual in Art (1912). In his book, Kandinsky analyses and expresses his aims and motifs in artistic expression. He details the spiritual closeness in artistic practice and how approaching the spiritual is the way to free oneself from the material.41 Kandinsky criticises the material approach in artworks, both as an influence and tool of artistic practice. As Hilma af Klint is often compared to the canonised abstract painters, mostly to Kandinsky, I use the book On the Spiritual in Art, as background material to understand the differences between these two painters.

Tuchman details how, in the 1930s and 1940s, the spiritualism became unpopular, because of the political suspicions to Nazism, as their philosophy included some influences from mysticism.42 By the report of Tuchman, this put the spiritual practice in a highly negative light, and the simultaneous rise of the formalist art criticism by Clement Greenberg was highly connected to the decrease of the popularity of spiritual tendencies. Tuchman considers Greenberg one of the most influential art critics, who, at the time, was actively working on identifying only the formalist artists and dismissing everyone else, who happened to be less central in his vision.43 Greenberg and his vision are discussed more in detail in chapter 1.4.3.

39 Tuchman, “Hidden Meanings of Abstract Art”, 17-63. 40 Ibidem, 17. 41 Wassily Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, (1946) 1912), 10. 42 Tuchman, “Hidden Meanings of Abstract Art”, 18. 43 Ibidem, 18.

The so-called second wave of the arrival of the Eastern philosophies in the 1960s and the 1970s caused a new interest towards the connection between the occult and art. Besides the exhibition in Los Angeles, the high amount of publications discussed the role of spiritualism in art. One of the publications of this era is Ringbom’s book The Sounding Cosmos (1970), which precisely investigated Kandinsky’s book, On the Spiritual in Art. Ringbom’s main argument was to pinpoint the spiritualist concept and the rational method in Kandinsky’s art studies. He understood that Kandinsky’s aim was to study art systematically and analytically, and it was “co-oriented with medical, physiological, chemical and occult knowledge”.44

Ringbom investigated the cultural circumstances of Kandinsky’s arts, so the influence of Annie Besant, Rudolph Steiner, and Madame Helena P. Blavatsky on the artistic practices of fin-de-siècle was discussed as well. Ringbom also points out the opposition between the “spiritual” and “technical” tendencies which were present in the society of that time, and how the spirituality-oriented artists such as Kandinsky or Johannes Itten managed to assert themselves from Bauhaus and general tendencies in German art.45 Ringbom points out how in Kandinsky’s works theosophical symbols played an important role: they intended to express cosmic truths, and in that way, they were mainly theoretical rather than based on personal sensitivity of Kandinsky.46

While Ringbom was an authority on the research of spirituality in Finland but also internationally, thanks to the exhibition Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, the Swedish art historian and critic Peter Cornell (b. 1942) researched the spirituality in art as one of the first ones in Sweden. In 1981 he published the book Den hemliga källan (English, The Secret Source). In his book, Cornell similarly connects spirituality and art together in the modern and early postmodern era. Cornell reflects about the spiritual source of the abstract pioneers, namely, according to him, Kupka, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich. He states that in these pioneering abstract painters, it is possible to see some ideological similarities.47

Cornell’s book could be understood as the base of the Swedish conversation about the spiritual in art and, therefore, I am mainly using this book as a source, to understand the discourse about spirituality in art in Sweden, even though Den hemliga källan hardly mention af Klint. Nonetheless, since the middle of the 1980s, Cornell has indeed cultivated an enormous interest in the artist. As an art critic

44 Sixten Ringbom The Sounding Cosmos. A Study in the Spiritualism of Kandinsky and the Genesis of Abstract Painting, Acta Academia Abonensis series A vo.38 no.2. (Turku: Åbo Akademi, 1970), 185. 45 Ibidem, 185. 46 Ibidem, 201. 47 Peter Cornell, Den hemliga källan: om initiationsmönster i konst, litteratur och politik (Hedemora: Gidlund, 1981), 157.

for the Swedish newspaper Expressen, he has written a large number of articles about this Swedish abstract artist over the years.

In the 2000s, the interest rose again to spirituality and mysticism. One of the books I am going to use is written by the American art historian James Elkins, entitled On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (2004). Elkins claims that postmodern art was never interested in spirituality or religion; instead, it was leaning on reasonability and formalism. He sees the postmodern art to reduce the religion into a minimum and instead turned painting to its religion.48 Also, Elkins points out the hostility between the fields of organised religion and art, where the representatives of religion do not want to have anything to do with art and vice versa. It is barely mentioned in art schools and institutions because it is understood as something private, which he calls spiritual. By the report of Elkins, the religion is only mentioned in contact with its criticism ironic distance or scandal.49 Elkins concludes that religion and art have gone in separate ways.50

This difference between the spiritual and religion is the crucial element in understanding the rise of acknowledgement of Hilma af Klint. When contact with the organised religion has distanced, the contact with the undefined spiritual has increased in the art world at the same time. This is, for example, explained in the article of Rina Arya, “Contemplations of the Spiritual in Visual Art”. In here, she pinpoints the study of Alister McGrath, Twilight of Atheism (2004), where he states that “the cultural perception of the death of God has given way to a renewed interest in spirituality”.51 The studies of McGrath and Elkins are mostly used in chapter four, where I analyse the rise of acknowledgement in Hilma af Klint’s art in the 2010s.

To conclude, I position my study in the research of spiritual in art by searching the changes of interest towards the spiritual in the reception of Hilma af Klint. In this, I use the previous research listed above as background material to comprehend the considerations on spiritual in the investigated eras, the 1980s and 2010s.

48 James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art,(New York: Routledge, 2004), 13 49 Ibidem, 15 50 Ibidem, 16 51 Rina Arya, “Contemplations of the Spiritual in Visual Art,” Journal for the Study of Spirituality. No. 1 (February 2011): 77.

1.4.3. Studies about art historical theories connected to art criticism

As my study is about the reception of Hilma af Klint, this section will concentrate on the studies and theories about art criticism, which I consider essential in reflection on my dissertation. Therefore, I will concentrate on the studies and theories, which are limited inside the time period of my thesis: the 1980s and the 2010s. These theories and art tendencies are considered mostly universal inside of the Western geographical area. I consider that in this way, the previous research study is the most fruitful, as my geographical limitation is moving between three Western countries.

As my study’s time frame is the 1980’s and 2010’s, I aim to list studies and art critical theories, which in my estimation could have affected in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. As a reference to this chapter, I use Kerr Houston’s book, An Introduction to Art Criticism: Histories, Strategies, Voices (2013), which has given me a full background to the history of art criticism in the Western Countries. Another study, which I am going to use as background material is the book of the Professor of art history at Stockholm University, Andrea Kollnitz, Konstens nationella identitet (2008) (English: The National Identity of Art). As the study of Kollnitz uses Critical Discourse Analysis as one of its central methods, it serves me as a model to my own research. Moreover, I have used it to understand the Swedish art critical discourse at the time of Hilma af Klint. The same purpose serves Kollnitz’ article “Questioning the Spiritual in Art – Hilma af Klint, Vasily Kandinsky and the Swedish Art World” in the exhibition catalogue Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future (2018).

I start my list of studies from the term I use highly in my dissertation; the myth, which is based on the definition by Roland Barthes (1915-1980). In his book, Mythologies (1957), Bathers contemplates the essence of myths in the modern art field. Essentially, he defines the myth to a specific type of speech, which is defined by the message it has about the object of speech.52 He says that the myth is a type of speech chosen by history, and it cannot possibly evolve from the nature of things; thus, a myth is always a construct.53 Essentially, the discursive essence of the myth is crucial in understanding the patterns of narrative in my thesis.

One of the central concepts to understand in my dissertation is the formalist theory of the American art critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994). Even though the British Roger Fry turned formalism into

52 Roland Barthes, Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (New York: The Noonday Press, (1972), 1957), 107. 53 Ibidem, 108.

an academic idea in the late nineteenth century, one of the most prominent figures of formalist art criticism has been Greenberg, who has influenced to the art critical discourses, both during the times of af Klint and the reception investigated in this dissertation, i.e. the 1980s and 2010s.54 In his essay, Modernist Painting (1960), Greenberg defines the modernism, placing its art roughly from the 1850s to the 1960s, to the same period where af Klint’s art emerged. He claims that modernism is capable of criticising itself, i.e. that the modernism is objective and universal. 55 His principal argument is that the formal limitations constitute the medium of painting such as the flat surface, the shape of the support and the properties of pigment, and these values are evaluated during the Modernist era.56 Greenberg’s thinking principally concentrated on the forms of the artworks, ignoring the meanings in them.

Also, my thesis considers the theories of Michel Foucault (1926-1984). He has been viewed as one of the main theorists of poststructuralist thinking of the late postmodern era. Hence, it is highly likely that the ideas of Foucault have affected the thinking of the reviewers in the 1980s and 2010s. In my dissertation, I mainly use the essay of Foucault, “What is an Author” (1969) and the book of Dianna Taylor, Michel Foucault: Key Concepts (2011). Taylor argues that the essence of Foucault was to criticise the historical nature of Western philosophy, which is traditionally viewed as absolute and universal. Mostly, he saw this thinking of universality as a historical product itself.57 To Foucault, the essential was to conceptualise the structures of power, which are an interactive change of knowledge between individuals, groups, and institutions; thus he sees these as the relationships of power, declaring that “power is everywhere” negating freedom and subjectivity.58 In his essay, “What is an Author”, Foucault uses his term power-knowledge in the analysis of the functional condition of discursive practices, continuing his critique for the theory of universality by assisting that the writing cannot be recognised separate from their authors, and declares that the complete work of author often suffers from the lack of a framework of their thinking outside of a paper.59

In my dissertation, the use of Foucault is certainly twofold. Primarily, his theories are used as a material of previous research in order to understand the art critical and theoretical tendencies of art criticism in the postmodern era. I argue that as the formalism of Greenberg and the poststructuralism

54 Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism: Histories, Strategies, Voices. (Maryland: Pearson,2012), 45 and 50- 51. 55 Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1960) in Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology. ed. Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison (Harper Row, 1982), 5. 56 Ibidem, 6. 57 Dianna Taylor ed. Michel Foucault: Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2011), 2. 58 Ibidem, 4. 59 Michel Foucault, “What is an author?”, in The Art of Art History, ed. Donald Preziosi, 322-323.

of Foucault have had a significant effect on the critical tendencies in the 1980s and 2010s. Secondly, most of my theoretical framework, such as Butler or Bourdieu, base their own theories on Foucauldian philosophy and thus my dissertation bases its theories to Foucault.

Arthur C. Danto describes in his book After the End of Art (1997) the history of modern art, describing the contemporary art post-historical. This means that the traditional narratives of history, are not valid anymore in the contemporary era, and instead, the art fields lean on the theories of poststructuralism, where the relativity of art historical narratives are understood. He describes that the formalist perception of Greenberg was the defining force of the Modern Era, intending to represent the world the way it presented itself.60 I argue that the echoes of Greenberg still affect general perceptions in the field of art. Moreover, Danto argues this distinction between the postmodern, and modern did not become clear until the 1970s and 1980s – at the same time when the oeuvre of Hilma af Klint became public for the first time.61

Danto’s theory about the post-historical narratives follows the creation of a theory which I will build in my dissertation. Thus, the term of canon in my dissertation bases on Danto’s theory about the historical and post-historical narratives. With the term canon, I mean the agreed art historical narrative of art history. The canon has criticised to base on the formalist thinking of Greenberg, where mainly the Western and masculine artists, presenting the agreed styles and following the agreed narratives, are included to this construct of the canon.

To understand the art critical tendencies in the Second Millenia, I have principally read the writings of James Elkins and Boris Groys. Groys’ idea about the promotional essence of art criticism was my starting point for this dissertation, which he presents in the essay “Under the Gaze of Theory” (2012) for eFlux. A similar theory has presented Elkins, in his book What Happened to Art Criticism? (2003), where Elkins agrees on the promotional essence, but divines the ways of promotion to seven categories of art criticism which he calls ‘seven-headed-hydra’. These categories include, e.g. exhibition catalogues of private galleries where an art critic is hired to write in favour of the artist, academic texts which aim to include art as part of the institutional conversation, descriptive art criticism explaining the art to the viewer and conservative harangue which claims how the things were better before than now.62

60 Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art. Contemporary art and the pale of history (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 7. 61 Ibidem, 11. 62 James Elkins, What Happened to Art Criticism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), 18–22.

The theory of Elkins is controversial; hence, I investigated the studies, which have criticised the claim of the promotional essence of art criticism, e.g. Katy Siegel. She states that this claim of promotion has gained popularity mostly because of the new ability of the educated middle class’ more confidential cultural reading skills, which has made the popularity of art criticism decrease.63 Accordingly, in the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Katy Deepwell states in the 50th AICA anniversary speech that it is arrogant to state that art criticism is only promotion. She argues that it is the responsibility of art critics to change the balance of art discourse towards the margins.64 This is precisely what it has been done in the case of Hilma af Klint. Because of her spiritual interest, nationality and gender, she has been understood mainly as a marginal artist.

I use the claims of Groys, Elkins, Siegel and Deepwell to understand the state of art criticism today, which indeed emerges its identity from the promotional aims. However, the tendencies towards the rave of the marginal are also visible. This is my start point in my investigation, as the authors writing about af Klint certainly give more visibility to the artist and thus promote the marginal narratives in art history. However, I also consider this contraposition of the promotional and non-promotional essence of art criticism. I place my own research to this by investigating the possible aims of the art critical articles of af Klint and discussing if in the further research, the case of Hilma af Klint, could be used to understand the contemporary state of art criticism.

To conclude this section, the use of theories of Barthes, Greenberg, Foucault and Danto are in the central position in my dissertation in order to understand the discursive patterns and myths around Hilma af Klint, and how these narrative patterns have influenced from the art historical tendencies. The concepts emerged from Barthes and Danto, myth and canon, are broadly used in throughout my text. On the other hand, the research of Elkins, Groys, Siegel and Deepwell give me an understanding of the contemporary art critical debate of the 2010s and the placement of myself in it.

1.5. Outline

This thesis is divided into six chapters. The second chapter follows the introduction, and is named “Revisiting the Myths of Hilma af Klint”. It aims to present a biographical and artistic background of

63 Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism: Histories, Strategies, Voices, 78 64 Katy Deepwell: “The Necessity of Art Criticism”, Histories of 50 years of the International Association of Art Critics, ed. Ramón Tio Bellido, (Paris: AICA Press, 2002), 89

af Klint as well as to review the development of research on her. The second chapter aims to present the most common myths as well as take the more in-depth look to the myth about that af Klint’s work should not have been presented in twenty years after her death. All this serves as a background to the following chapters.

Chapters three, four and five formulate the body of analysis of the dissertation, where the curatorial aims and organisation, as well as the reception of Hilma af Klint’s, are analysed. This is done by looking the cases of three exhibitions: The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890 – 1985 (1986- 1987); The Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint (1988-1989); and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (2013-2015). These chapters are divided into three sections, consisting of the presentation and analysis of the social connections, aims and curatorial practices of the exhibitions followed by the analysis of their reception. These chapters aim to find the discursive patterns in the narrative of Hilma af Klint and see the influence of the prominent agents involved in the discursive field of af Klint. Chapters three, four and five are followed by the summary and conclusion, where these chapters are compared to each other and summarised forming the final conclusion of the dissertation.

Figure 2. HILMA AF KLINT - The Ten Greatest No. 7. Adulthood, 1907 Tempera on paper, 328x240cm By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet

2. REVISITING THE MYTHS AROUND HILMA AF KLINT

This chapter revisits some specialised texts written about Hilma af Klint, as a background to the principal analysis, namely chapters three, four and five, where I discuss the presentation of the exhibitions Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986), Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint (1988), and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (2013). In the analysed reception of the exhibitions, Hilma af Klint often represents the marginal, who in many sources, is seen as an outsider of the traditional art historical canon.65 On the other hand, today, she is also a celebrated artist who fascinates and captures the attention of the viewers with her spiritual paintings. This so-called contradiction of perceptions is the starting point of the reflection in this chapter. Many art historians have tried to understand the oeuvre and life of this painter, and in these texts, she has been compared, included, and excluded from the traditional canon of art history. Often in these discourses is added the mention of the canonised male painters such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Kupka and Malevich.66

In this chapter, I aim to both present the biographical and artistic background of Hilma af Klint, and critically reflect on the myths told about her. In this chapter, I use mainly the texts of Åke Fant, Sixten Ringbom, Gurli Lindén, Gertrud Sandqvist, Iris Müller-Westermann and Julia Voss, as I consider their work the most prominent in the field of Hilma af Klint. I also rely on the comments of the Professor of art history at Stockholm University. Andrea Kollnitz, Professor of art history at the University of Manchester. David Lomas, the former director of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Ulf Wagner, and the Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Turku, Nina Kokkinen. I consider the different perspectives, possible motifs and backgrounds these agents might have in the contribution of the discursive field of af Klint. In this section, I aim to understand the narrative of Hilma af Klint and show the changes in an investigation of an artist, who has tickled the imagination of many.

In these specialised sources, Hilma af Klint is described to be a profoundly religious person, whose art could not be understood without studying theosophy, anthroposophy and spiritualism from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. According to Gurli Lindén, and Gertrud Sandqvist, the

65 e.g. Birnbaum, “Why there is not so many women artists” , in Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future, ed. Baskhoff, 210-214. 66 e.g. Peter Cornell, “Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, Expressen, 17th October 1987, 5. See also Iris Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, in Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. ed. Iris Müller-Westermann and Jo Widoff, (Stockholm: Hatje Catz Verlag, 2013), 33.

most significant role models for af Klint were the theosophist Madame Helena P. Blavatsky, the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, and later the successor of Blavatsky, Annie Besant.67 These three figures could be considered as attributions to the spiritual practice in the fin-de-siècle, where the interest towards hypnosis, Spiritism and Mesmerism increased at the same time when the Christianity had decreased to be just an official power instead from its place of genuine authority.68

The previous is confirmed in many other sources, such as in the texts of Ringbom who investigated the spirituality in abstract art on Kandinsky’s works.69 He confirms that the spiritualism of Eastern philosophies rose to the general interest of artists during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 by Blavatsky, and in 1889 by the suggestion of the writer Viktor Rydberg the Theosophical society was founded in Sweden.70 Ringbom says that the interest towards India and the East strengthened when Besant started to influence the theosophist society in 1907.71 Julia Voss points out that the theosophist movement was essentially a feminist as it was led by influential leaders: Blavatsky and later Besant.72 The strong woman leaders could have been a reason why these notions to the spiritual climate have been seen as a defining circumstance to the artistic practice of af Klint.

Spiritual travel was not an extraordinary practice in fin-de-siècle. According to Nina Kokkinen, religion relinquished its position to science during the second industrial revolution. Kokkinen states that the spiritual counter-movements started to raise their heads when the official religious entity, the church, gradually lost its power. Spiritual art was popularly produced in this time, and artists were often placing themselves in between these two poles: science, and religion.73 Also, many sources confirm that the discovery of X-Ray and radioactivity affected too to the general view of reality. Sandqvist argues that these possibilities to see unmaterial or extinguish all life did not make the auras and astral bodies seem nonsense.74 This duality of science and spirituality was also a start point to af Klint.

67 Gertrud Sandqvist, ”Channelled” in I Strömmen ed. Gertrud Sandqvist and Åsa Nacking (Malmö: Exacta, 2013), 85. 68 Ibidem. 69 Sixten Ringbom, Pinta ja syvyys, trans. Rakel Kallio, Esko Kukkasniemi, Paula Nieminen (Forssa: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Taide, 1989), 56. See also Sandqvist, ”Channelled”, 85. 70 Ibidem, 88 71 Ringbom, Pinta ja syvyys, 37 72 Julia Voss, ”Five Things to Know about Hilma af Klint” in Hilma af Klint – Visionary ed. Almqvist and Belfrage 73 Nina Kokkinen, Totuudenetsijät, (Tampere: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Vastapaino, 2019), 19 74 Sandqvist,” Channelled”, 87

Indeed, the artists of the time understood these possibilities to the spiritual. In the revisited specialised texts, Kandinsky’s oeuvre was often compared to af Klint’s. In his book, On the Spiritual in Art (1912), Kandinsky seeks the way to research the immaterial and details his aims to his artistic expression. He analyses the spiritual closeness in artistic practice, and how the approach of the spiritual is the way to free oneself from the material. Fant pinpoints that, af Klint honestly believed she was a mediator of the messages from the spirits.75 Müller-Westermann adds that af Klint’s works are not conceived as a pure abstraction of colour and form for its own sake but instead as attempts to give shape to invisible context and make it visible.76 Both Fant and Müller-Westermann argued that while traditional male artists took spiritual inspiration in order to arrive at the formal, af Klint lived the spiritual and understood it through her art.

As said, the fundamental basis of af Klint’s art was spiritual, and the specialists commonly agree on it. Gertrud Sandqvist adds that even though af Klint had influences from Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, yet she was profoundly Christian, and this combination was apparent in her artistry.77 As Sandqvist writes in the catalogue of the exhibition I Strömmen (English In the Stream) af Klint’s oeuvre consisted over 1000 esoteric works, of what 193 were her nucleus artistry, Paintings for the Temple, and executed between the years 1906 and 1916 by the commission of the spirits.78 Her art can be described to be as a systematic visualisation of complex philosophical ideas with the spiritual notions and the aim to seek the union with the universe. Sandqvist notes that the remaining 800 works were drawings, watercolours, gouaches, which were also celebrating either occult or esoteric philosophies.79

By the report of Fant, Paintings for the Temple are divided into smaller sections with different titles. However, the titles sometimes include subtitles, and some paintings belong under various titles, which all makes the precise cataloguing of the paintings extremely complex.80 Paintings for the Temple starts from the series, WU or The Rose (1906-1907) (Figure 3. Primordial Chaos, 1906), where af Klint practised her future mission, the paintings to the future temple, which was meant to be af Klint’s next project for the paintings.81 After the practice series WU, she painted three big paintings which she called the Preliminary Works. These three artworks were more figurative than abstract. In 1907, af Klint started her first famous series, which she called The Ten Greatest. In these paintings, the four

75 Åke Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, (Helsinki: Pohjoismainen taidekeskus, 1988), 20. 76 Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 38. 77 Sandqvist, ”Chanelled”, 88. 78 Ibidem, 83. 79 Ibidem, 83. 80 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 58-60. 81 Julia Voss, “The Travelling Hilma af Klint”.

moments of human life; childhood, youth, adulthood (Figure 3. Adulthood, 1907) and old age are pictured. After the Ten Greatest, she painted the series WUS or The Pleiades (Figure 2. The Silence, 1907), which was divided into three parts. This series contained 16 oil paintings and a series of aquarelle paintings which were partially included also into the next series, US, released in 1913. During the second phase, af Klint painted the series W or The Tree of Knowledge (1913-1915), the series SUW or the Swan (1914-1915) (Figure 1., The Swan no.17., 1915) and the Altar Paintings (1915) (Figure.4. Altar Painting no.1., 1915)

Moreover, the collection includes the artworks before and after the Paintings for the Temple and 125 notebooks, where af Klint wrote about the spiritual sessions and encounters with spirits. These notebooks are written together with the group the Five or by af Klint alone. The oldest notebook is from 1897. Sandqvist claims that while reading notebooks, it was apparent that the artist aimed for them to be published at some point, as she even edited the notebooks a couple of times.82 In these, the spiritual nature of the paintings is revealed. Af Klint’s works included symbolistic meanings, but in the end, their aim was to seek the union with the universe. The symbols such as the spiral are regularly mentioned in the sources. These paintings contain various symbols and messages, which, according to Voss, were constructed following the polarities (e.g. darkness and light, masculine and feminine). This idea was borrowed directly from the Eastern philosophies. As reported by Lindén, alphabetical art plays a vital role in Tibetan art. However, Lindén adds that the alphabetical drawings appearing in the paintings aimed to create a lesson for both Christian and non-Christian observers.

On the other hand, David Lomas pinpoints the thematic of colours: blue and yellow, which were associated with female and male. 83 Moreover, af Klint presented the circle of life, which is most clearly presented in the series Ages of Man or The Ten Greatest (1907). In summary of perceptions of Sandqvist, Voss and Lomas, af Klint aimed to present the oneness of the universe, which included spiritual notions coupled with the symbols of colour, comparations and nature, such as a snail and botanic motifs, which were the central symbolic elements in her oeuvre.

Hilma af Klint was born in the 26th of October in 1862 in Karlberg’s castle, where her father worked as a teacher for marine soldiers and, as reported by Fant, the whole family af Klint was interested in mathematics.84 According to Fant, af Klint was always having spiritual tendencies but started urgently investigating spiritualism after her sister Hermine passed away, when af Klint was a seventeen-year-

82 Sandqvist, ”Chanelled”, 88. 83 David Lomas, ”The Botanical Roots of Hilma af Klint’s Abstraction” in Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction ed. Müller-Westermann and Widoff, 235. 84 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 14.

old.85 However, according to Voss, af Klint had already participated in her first spiritual session a year earlier, in 1879. 86 Additionally, her other personal interests, science, botany, and nature, became apparent at an exceedingly early age. Fant states that af Klint’s interest in botanic drawings continued to adulthood, and she served as an official illustrator in Stockholm’s veterinarian institute. Fant comments this to be a typical professional path for a Swedish woman painter at the time.87 Nevertheless, as said, this duality of science and spirituality is one of the defining characteristics in af Klint’s artistic practice.

In 1880, Af Klint started her studies with some preparatory courses at the Technical School of Stockholm (Swedish Tekniska Skolan, nowadays Konstfack). Later she started her education at Stockholm’s Royal Art Academy in 1882, where she studied for five years. After her graduation in 1897, af Klint got a studio in Hamngatan 5, nearby of Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. In the same building, The Art Society’s (known as Sveriges Allmänna Konstföreing) galleries had been situated since the year 1889, as well as, a couple of years earlier, in 1883, the art dealer Theodor Blanch, who had opened an art salon in the building.88 Fant has often built an image of an isolated artist who did not participate in the artistic dialogues in general. Nevertheless, Müller-Westermann disagrees with this image, pinpointing the central location of af Klint’s studio, close to where European artists such as Edward Munch presented their work. Müller-Westermann believes that af Klint was able to see the works of the exhibition of Munch presented in 1894, with central works such as Madonna, The Scream and Vampire, and, thus, the international art tendencies which turned towards the internal world.89 Müller-Westermann also mentions the exhibition of Erns Josephson of 1888, which was shown in the galleries of the Art Society after the outbreak of the schizophrenia of Josephson. Similarly, she mentions that af Klint was occasionally showing her figurative portraits and landscapes, for example in the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö, wherein the Russian section some of Kandinsky’s works were presented. 90

The sincere interest for the spiritual continued for Hilma af Klint’s entire life. The group called as De Fem (The Five), or Fredagsgruppen (The Friday Group) was formed in 1896 by five women: af Klint, Anna Cassel, Sigrid Hedman, Cornelia Cederberg and Mathilde N.91 According to Fant, af Klint was

85 Ibidem, 14. 86 Voss, ”Five Things to Know about Hilma af Klint”, 34. 87 Fant, ”Hilma af Klintin maalauksista”, 34. 88 Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 37. 89 Ibidem, 37. 90 Ibidem, 38. 91 Ibidem, 41.

soon chosen as one of the mediums of the group. 92 However, Lindén tells, that af Klint had a minor role at the beginning of the group when the medium of the group was Hedman.93 Nevertheless, these five women kept a significant interest in communicating with spirits. Soon, af Klint started to do automatic drawings that are saved in many notebooks of the collection.

These five women held sittings, where they started to take messages from spirits. Most known of them are Gregor, Clemens, Ananda and Amaliel. Sandqvist reports that af Klint described the first encounters with the spirits as frightening and unpleasant.94 The Five developed a unique way of writing which they used as a tool in communicating with the spirits, called psychic writing. This method later developed to automatic drawing, which Müller-Westermann mentions to require a state of passivity and rejection of learned patterns of thought.95 Fant compares this to automatism, a method used by the Surrealists in the 1930s.96 Lindén pinpoints how the influences of the Western and Eastern philosophies affected the names of the spirits. Gregor, Clemens and Amaliel are Christian names while Ananda comes from Buddhism.97

In 1904, the painter started to get messages from Ananda about the great mission. The spirits declared that she should help to construct a new temple, which she should decorate with paintings. However, first, she had to undergo the cleansing process which contained, for example, a vegetarian diet, fasting and praying. In 1906 af Klint started to formulate her abstract paintings, which we know by the name The Paintings for the Temple.

As reported by Müller-Westermann, af Klint painted in rapid succession 111 pictures between November 1906 and April 1908.98 She writes about the first spiritual painting session in her notebooks, and the following quote was written in the catalogue of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, referred later in many articles in the 1980s, e.g. Birgitta Rubin, “En ovanlig konstnärinna. “Andarna” gjorde henne till en föregångare”, Dagens Nyheter 1988 (English: “An Unusual Artist. ’Spirits’ made her a pioneer”). In this quote, the religious origin of the paintings becomes evident:

92 Åke Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 15. 93 Gurli Lindén, I Describe the Way Meanwhile I am Proceeding Along It,, 12. 94 Sandqvist, ”Chanelled”, 89. 95 Fant, ”Hilma af Klintin maalauksista”, 15. See also Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 41. 96 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 20 97 Lindén, I Describe the Way Meanwhile I am Proceeding Along It, 12. 98 Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 41.

Over the easel, I saw a Sign of Jupiter, which was strongly illuminated and visible for several seconds. Immediately after that, the work began. It happened so that the pictures were painted directly through me, without preliminary drawings and with great power.99

Around the year 1908, then-secretary of Theosophist Association Rudolph Steiner visited af Klint’s studio and saw some of her paintings. According to Fant, Steiner commented that the paintings should not be shown before 50 years had passed since they were painted. This anecdote depressed the artist, and she stopped painting abstract paintings for four years.100 Later, the quote of Steiner has been connected to af Klint’s desire to hide the paintings for the future. According to Fant, Steiner had a different idea about the ideal painting and visual communication, and this idea was not in line with af Klint’s paintings.101 Other specialists such as Voss have argued that Steiner’s harsh opinions towards women artists were also affecting his opinions about af Kint’s art.102

Müller-Westermann presents another story about the incident. She reports that Steiner particularly liked Primordial Chaos no 13, 15, 16 and 1 and Group 1. The Wu/Rose series 1906-1907, calling them the best, in terms of symbolism.103 Müller-Westermann reports the reason for pause to be the illness of af Klint’s mother, which forced her to give up her studio in Hamngatan and move to Brahegatan 52.104 On the other hand, Voss reports, that at the time af Klint tried to present the Paintings for the Temple through the Association of Swedish Women Artists, where she also served as a secretary during a short period between 1910 and 1911. Voss claims that the reason behind af Klint leaving was her hopes to get more support from the association.105

After the four year pause from spiritual painting between 1908 and 1912, af Klint was ready to paint again, but she did not use the same working method as with her previous paintings. Fant says that the spirits were transmitting the guidelines she had to follow, but she made the so-called artistic decision.106 During the second phase, the series W or The Tree of Knowledge (1913-1915) and SUW or the Swan (1914-1915) was born. In this series, some of the paintings portray swans in a figurative style, but other works were experimenting with abstract forms of a circle. After the series Swan, the three big altar pictures were painted in 1915.107

99 Fant, Secret Pictursed by Hilma af Klint, 25. 100 Ibidem, 17 101 Ibidem, 20. 102 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 24 103 Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 42. 104 Ibidem, 41. 105 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 24. 106 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 17 107 Ibidem, 17.

After the death of her mother in 1920, af Klint travelled to Dornach in Switzerland to meet Rudolf Steiner. According to Fant, af Klint travelled with Thomasine Andersson, but Voss does not mention anything about this.108 Nevertheless, af Klint again showed her paintings to Steiner, as in 1908. Steiner was still unimpressed, and she decided to learn more about the philosophy and painting techniques of Steiner. According to Fant, she desperately desired some new comments about her work, but Steiner did not answer to her questions. This has been said to depress af Klint deeply.109 However, according to Voss, af Klint still tried to show her paintings to the audience. In 1927 she travelled to Amsterdam to show her paintings, yet without success.110

Fant generally describes af Klint as an isolated person, but he mentions a couple of close relationships of her. First, the nurse Thomasine Andersson whom af Klint got to know in 1913, and who helped to take care of the artist’s sick mother. Fant describes that after the death of her mother, these two ladies became inseparable, and they moved in together to Helsingborg.111 Andersson is barely mentioned in the other sources under analysis, and the nature of their relationship is unclear. Another woman, Anna Cassel, is mentioned more often in the sources. Many sources state Cassel to be a long-term friend, whom she met in the Royal Art Academy. Accordingly, Cassel was part of The Five. In 1917, af Klint moved to Munsö. According to Fant, she rented the villa Furuheim with some colleagues, but Voss, on the other hand, writes that Cassel paid all the living expenses as well as the construction of the studio in Munsö, which was meant to be a deposit to the Paintings for the Temple. 112 The third close person mentioned in the sources is the personal secretary of af Klint, Olof Sundström. Sandqvist describes Sundström to be a young painter who was interested in af Klint and was ready to support her.113 During af Klint’s last years, Sundström assisted her in cataloguing and photographing the paintings in black-and-white and later collecting them together in a folder called the blue notebook; additionally, he transcribed over 2000 pages of the handwritten notebooks.114

The sexuality and the nature of the relationships of af Klint are not widely discussed. However, some hints could be found from the interpretation of her religious paintings. The first researcher discussing

108 Ibidem, 18. 109 Ibidem,17. 110 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 27. 111 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 18. 112 Ibidem, 18. See also Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 37-39. 113 Sandqvist, ‘"I immediately said Yes" - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time”. 114 Fant, Hilma af Klint: Ockult målarinna och abstract pionjär, 10. See also. Josiah McElheny in conversation with Christine Burgin, Leah Dickerman, Lisa Florman, R. H. Quaytman and Amy Sillman, mod. by Helen Moleswoth, “Art for Another Future: earning from Hilma af Klint” in Hilma af Klint- Paintings for the Future ed. Baskhoff, 34.

the sexual meanings of the paintings is Sixten Ringbom. In the article for the catalogue of Spiritualism in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Ringbom uses af Klint’s vision of the opposite poles and the representation of the colour meaning the differentiation genders. Ringbom uses as an example, the painting from the Man and Woman series, The Silence (1907), where two figures are represented with the abstract patterns and a cross piercing their bodies. Ringbom quotes Blavatsky saying that the cross “is a sign that the fall of man into the matter is accomplished.”115 This could be understood that Ringbom sees the expression of sexual desire in the paintings, which is, from his point of view, verified with the geometric symbolism.

Voss presents, on the other hand, the idea that the union of male and female is presented regularly in the paintings in the form of a snail. Voss maintains that as snails are hermaphrodites, the symbolism of this creature is for the union of the female and male bodies.116 The root of the snail, coupled with the botanic forms, is presented in the article of David Lomas in the catalogue Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. Lomas says that this spiral is just an echo of the language of af Klint which is inspired from nature, but on the other hand, adds that in the Kingdom of nature the flora and snails – the symbols af Klint most commonly repeats – are known as hermaphrodites.117 He supposes that af Klint subscribes to a more sublimated mysticism in which flowering plants could serve as a model for the ideal overcoming of sexual difference.118

In the book published together with the exhibition of Guggenheim New York, Hilma af Klint - Paintings for the Future, the idea of the aimed temple is presented in detail. The paintings were aimed to decorate the theosophist temple, which af Klint designed in 1931. This spiral temple repeated the geometric forms of the paintings in three levels. In the centre of the building should have been a spiral tower.119 In the catalogue of Guggenheim, this design of the temple was connected to the idea of Hilla Rebay about the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum.120 Kokkinen states that the temple is one of the critical elements of theosophist movements, and it is a symbol for a world-wide brother- and sisterhood, where race, gender or social status are meaningless.121 Thus, at the time, many other Nordic painters concentrated on the symbology of temple building. This shows that af Klint’s idea of the temple was certainly influenced by the theosophist philosophy.

115 Ringbom, “Trancending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Pioneers”, 143. 116 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 36. 117 David Lomas, ”The Botanical Roots of Hilma af Klint’s Abstraction”, in Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction ed. Müller-Westermann and Widoff, 225. 118 Ibidem, 235. 119 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 39. 120 Tracey Baskhoff, “Pararel Visionaries - Hilla Rebay and Hilma af Klint”in Hilma af Klint- Visionary ed. Baskhoff, 55. 121 Kokkinen, Totuudenetsijät, 75.

Hilma af Klint died in complications caused by a traffic accident on the 21st of October 1944. According to Fant, during her last years, she was trying to seek a place for her extraordinary paintings. However, these paintings never found their place during the artist’s lifetime, and everything was bequeathed to Hilma af Klint’s nephew Erik. Fant writes that the artist wrote a will about her desire that the paintings should not be shown from twenty years from her death. However, this claim is a complicated myth, which I am going to discuss on a deeper level in section 2.1.

All in all, Hilma af Klint was a character, who still – as agreed by all the specialists – performed an artistic practice, which had dualism between science and spiritualism and not only took sources from the occult but was instead visualisating the spiritual. Her life and artistry combine the themes of spiritualism, gender issues and early abstract art in one person. The different perspectives; the traditional systematic tone of the 1980s by Fant and the more modern perspective of Müller- Westermann and Voss all together build an image of an artist who was a brave forerunner not listening to the authoritative voices of her time. The extensive work of Sandqvist with the artist's notebooks deepened the knowledge about the artist’s close contact with the spirits. On the other hand, Ringbom’s mention of sexuality starts the discourse of the artist’s desires and the root of her expression. This all built an image about an artist, who formed myths around the topics of a pioneer, isolation and the will. The narrative of the will is the most controversial in the myth of af Klint, containing false facts, and hence I will discuss that profoundly in the next section.

2.1. “Not to make public sooner than twenty years after her death” – The narrative of the will

The most famous narrative related to af Klint is the myth about her will. In the catalogue of 1988, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Åke Fant says the following about it:

When the will was opened, it revealed that her nephew Erik had inherited everything and that it was to be made public no sooner than twenty years after her death. This was because she reckoned that only then would there be a chance of her work being understood.122

This narrative has persisted during nearly all the period af Klint’s works have been public, from the 1980s to the late 2010s. The general narrative is joined with the vision that af Klint intentionally

122 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 27.

painted for the future. Thus, she did not want to present the paintings, as she understood that her contemporaries could not understand them. Moreover, the decision of the painter is generally understood to be a result of the critic by Rudolph Steiner during their meeting in 1908.

The analysis of the narrative of the ‘twenty years public hideout’ must begin with the study of the perception of af Klint’s nature. In many sources from the 1980s and 1990s, af Klint was described as a calm, shy and modest. For instance, af Klint’s nephew, Gustaf af Klint, described his aunt as a slender and modest woman, who was always kind, thoughtful and even shy.123 This kind of perception has been repeated in articles until recent years. The image of the woman who lived an ascetic and silent life fits with the story of her taking care of her blind mother, or the claims that she never took the chance to show Paintings for the Temple to the broader audience. Fant even states that, during her study years, af Klint was aware of her fellow students’ revolutionary intentions, but she did not show any interest in the revolutionary movements of the time.124

Before the 2010s, this image was not questioned at a deeper level, but in contemporary studies, af Klint’s motifs for isolation have been analysed from a broader perspective. Andrea Kollnitz mentions in her article of the catalogue Paintings for the Future that the Swedish art-critical rejection of abstraction and German expressionism were part of the broader discourse shaped by the Social Democratic welfare politics, where rationality, moderation and down-to-earth politics were celebrated national values. An echo of this can be seen in what the Swedish critics wrote about Kandinsky.125 The Swedish art critical atmosphere on the 1910s and 1920s was strongly ridiculing the intentions to underline the spiritual symbolism such as in Kandinsky’s Compositions. Kollnitz declares that af Klint’s decision to hide the paintings could have been a decision made in the awareness of the Swedish art critical climate, where her paintings would have met even stronger rejection than Kandinsky’s.126

Müller-Westermann offers another perspective with an argument from the position of a woman artist in the late nineteenth century. She states that even though women had been admitted to the Art Academy in Sweden since 1864, still women artists were not considered equal to their male colleagues. Artistic practice for women was seen more as a hobby before marriage rather than a professional position. Moreover, the popular view was that women were only capable of reproducing and not creating anything new. Múller-Westermann asserts that because of the male-dominated

123 Gustaf af Klint: ”Introduction”, in I Describe the Way and Meanwhile I Am Proceeding Along It, ed. Lindén, 7. 124 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 14. 125 Andrea Kollnitz, “Questioning the Spiritual in Art: Hilma af Klint, Vasily Kandisnky, and the Swedish Art World”, in Hilma af Klint - Paintings for the Future, ed. Baskhoff, 74-75. 126 Ibidem, 76.

climate it is no wonder that af Klint decided to seek acceptance mostly among woman communities rather than joining the artistic societies or teaching methods at the Academy, which was promoted by male artists, such as Ernst Josephson and Eugéne Jansson.127

The research of Voss shows that af Klint indeed was trying to present her Paintings for the Temple various times – and even presented some of them in London in 1928. To present the paintings, she applied to the Word Conference of Spiritual Science and travelled to England by ship. However, Voss mentions that it is not known which paintings the artist presented, even though it is known that they were Paintings for the Temple, as their large format is mentioned in the letters.128 Voss’ perception of the artist is altogether different from what Fant describes. She draws a picture of an adventurous woman, who was expected to take on all the duties as a typical Swedish woman from the beginning of the twentieth century, but who at the same time was craving something more. This adventurous side Voss shows by revealing various events in af Klint’s life, e.g. her various travels to Germany, Amsterdam and Florence in the 1920s. Also, Müller-Westermann wrote about af Klint generally as a forerunner, adding that “her open-mindedness, coupled with her curiosity, runs like a golden thread throughout her entire oeuvre.”129

However, Fant already admitted in the 1980s that af Klint was included in the artistic society as she presented her academic works in Norrköping and Lund in 1906 and 1907. Additionally, in 1911, she presented her landscape paintings and portraits at the group exhibition of the Swedish Women Artists’ Association, where she served briefly as a secretary. Voss claims that af Klint was hoping to present her Paintings for the Temple in there in a solo exhibition, however never succeeding, and because of this unsuccessful experience, she left the association after only one year in 1911.130

The myth of the hideout of twenty years seems to be disproved by what Voss showed, that af Klint indeed presented the Paintings for the Temple already during her lifetime. However, during my discussion with the long-term director of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Ulf Wagner, he pinpoints a critical detail:

[…] she never said in her will that the paintings should not be shown in 20 years. And it is a mistake which is written in many catalogues. But actually, the will does not say that. She writes it in her notebook though. But this claim has been in the first catalogue, and then it has developed during the

127 Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction”, 38. 128 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 28. 129 Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 37. 130 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 24.

years. And I think the mistake comes from Åke Fant, who talked to Erik af Klint. And maybe it could be that Erik has heard it from Hilma.131

Julia Voss confirms the fact that af Klint’s desire about the twenty years prevision is written in her notebooks. Voss writes: “In one of her notebooks from that year she notes the symbol ‘+x’ and explains it means ’20 år efter min död’ – ‘all works that carry this sign should not be opened until 20 years after my death’. 132 It could be said that Voss repeats the desire of af Klint to preserve the works for the future in the same way as Fant has concluded.

The mistake of the will is important. I argue that the difference between the essence of the notebook and the will has not been taken into sufficient consideration, and thus af Klint’s intentions about the 20 years hideout have been taken without a more in-depth analysis. Fairclough discussed the importance of the consideration of the genres; based on that it should be observed the difference between the aims of the notebook and those of a will. As stated before, af Klint’s personal notebooks were meant to be read, as she edited them, and even had her secretary transcribe some parts. However, the contradiction of displaying Paintings of the Temple during her lifetime, coupled with the fact that she expressed this desire to keep the paintings private for 20 years in the unofficial document instead of presenting them in her last will, raises a question if she truly wanted to hide the paintings.

As a small summary, in this chapter, I present the idea that the predominant myth about the twenty years prevention should be reconsidered. Hilma af Klint was genuinely aware of the formalist and male-dominated climate of her time, and that might have been the reason why she hesitated to show the paintings more openly. However, she still tried actively to show the paintings and even succeed with it. Also, the existent of the last will stating that the paintings should be hidden has been later proven untrue, and this raises evidently the questions of the true intentions of the artist. Therefore, the lack of broader contemporary audience of af Klint’s time might have been resulted by reason of the lamentable circumstances rather than the artist’s honest desires to hide the paintings from the public.

131 Ulf Wagner in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of May 2020. 132 Voss, “Five Things to Know About Hilma af Klint”, 28.

Figure 3. HILMA AF KLINT- Primordial Chaos Figure 4. HILMA AF KLINT- Altar Paintings, 1915 No. 1, Group I, The WU/Rose Series, 1906 No 3. 1915 Oil on canvas 50x38cm Tempera and oil on canvas 185x152cm By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation / By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet Photo: Moderna Museet

3. “HIDDEN MEANINGS” – A CLASH BETWEEN FORMALIST AND SPIRITUAL

In November 1986, the group exhibition entitled The Spiritual in Art - Abstract Painting 1890-1985 opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). After Los Angeles, the exhibition toured to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA Chicago) and Haags Gementemuseum, where the tour ended in November 1987. This chapter discusses the exhibition The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting as well as its possible aims. Next, section 3.1. focuses on some of the events, which in the end led to the presentation of Hilma af Klint’s oeuvre in Los Angles, and finally, section 3.2. concentrates on the reception of af Klint’s art after the exhibition tour. However, because of the obtained material’s content, the relationships between LACMA, MCA Chicago and Haags

Gementemuseum is not discussed in-depth. This investigation is done through the text-based analysis of the archival material found in the Swedish Royal Library and the Donner Institute of Turku, Finland. Moreover, as a source I use my conversation with Ulf Wagner, who worked as a director of the Hilma af Klint Foundation between 1995 and 2020.

The exhibition The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 was ambitious in its size and variety of artworks selected. It presented approximately 230 artworks from 99 artists from Europe and America, among them Paul Gauguin, Edward Munch, Giacomo Balla, Marcel Duchamp, Johannes Itten, Georgia O´Keefe, Joseph Beuys, Yves Klein, and Jackson Pollock.133 The artworks were divided thematically by different rooms, such as in the rooms of symbolist art or the literature influencing spiritual ideas. Five of the artists were presented in individual rooms. Those artists were Frantisek Kupka, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Hilma af Klint.134 In the room of af Klint, thirteen pieces from her oeuvre were exhibited. The selection included the Automatic Séance Sketchbook from the 1890s, an illustrated house catalogue related to the 1907 paintings (1907), portfolios Nos. 5 and 6 (1920) and a water coloured portfolio (1916).135 From the Paintings for the Temple No. 1, from the series WU, (1906) (figure 3.), No 3. from the series Ages of Man (1907), No. 1. from the series Altar Paintings, (1915) (figure 4.), Evolution No. 1 (1908), Convolution of Astral Forces (1915) and Nos. 8, 14, 17 and 22 from the series Swan (1914-1915).136

To build the exhibition in its extension, Tuchman collaborated closely with the director of Haags Gemeentemuseum, Henk Overdun. In the exhibition catalogue, Tuchman details how the exhibition idea on the theme of mysticism in modern art was conceived during a conversation with the critic Barbara Rose in 1973. In 1976, the idea was proposed to the LACMA Board of Trustees. When Earl A. Powell took his position as director of LACMA at the beginning of the 1980s, the project was selected as an inaugural exhibition for the Robert O. Andersson Building.137 The building was the fourth structure built on the Museum campus.138 The exhibition Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, opened on the 23rd of November 1986.

The extension of the background research reveals itself in the list of names under “Acknowledgments” of the catalogue. Tuchman mentions over 200 names of people who

133 Torsen Ekbom, ”En föregångare i hemlighet”, Dagens Nyheter, 26th August 1988, 4. 134 e.g, Cornell “Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, 5. 135 Tuchman ed. Spiritual in art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, 420-427. 136 Ibidem 423. 137 Maurice Tuchman, “Acknowledgments”, in Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, ed. Tuchman, 13. 138 Deborah Vankin, “LACMA’s campus has been a work in progress since its 1965 opening” Los Angeles Times. 3rd July 2018, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-lacma-timeline-20180703-story.html.

collaborated in the research for the exhibition. Among these specialists were, e.g. Sixten Ringbom, who was responsible for the research of the Nordic Art presented at the exhibition. Also, his speciality on Wassily Kandinsky is mentioned. Furthermore, Tuchman mentions the curator from the Fogg Art Museum and professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University, Konrad Oberhuber, who contributed to the inclusion of Hilma af Klint as part of in the exhibition.139 Tuchman also mentions the American art critic Hilton Kramer (1928-2012), whom Tuchman writes to be a provider of information and counsel on the period of early modernism through to abstract expressionism.140 Kramer later wrote a review on the exhibition for The New Criterion, which is discussed more in detail in section 3.2. Additionally, a visible contributor was Åke Fant, who wrote a chapter for the exhibition catalogue entitled “The Case of the Artist Hilma af Klint”. In the article of the catalogue “Hidden Meanings in Abstract Art”, Tuchman pinpoints Fant’s article to be the first text written in English about Hilma af Klint, which underlines the fact what an unknown artist af Klint still was in 1986.141

Tuchman states a precise aim for the exhibition; he wanted to create an extensive retrospective of abstract art, which primarily investigated the spiritual source of abstract artists’ practice.142 The director of LACMA, Earl A. Powell, argues the exhibition to demonstrate the genesis and the development of abstract art, which is tied to spiritual ideas in Europe and the United States.143 Tuchman calls these spiritual ideas in art as “hidden meanings”.

This idea of “hidden meanings” is shown in the way the exhibition was organized.144 The art critic Hilton Kramer writes about the organization in his critique “On the “Spiritual in Art” in Los Angeles”, blasting it to be “needlessly complicated.”145 The exhibition starts with the hall dedicated to Symbolism, including artists such as Edward Munch and Victor Hugo.146 The second room was circular; the aim was to show books, which have been known to have influenced the kind of mystical and occult thought. After the circular room, the five individual rooms followed in the sequenced order: Kandinsky, Kupka, Malevich, Mondrian and af Klint. After the room of af Klint, the curatorial focus changed to iconographical meanings, which aimed to guide the visitor to find the “hidden meanings”. These iconographical themes were divided into five rooms which were “Cosmic

139 Tuchman, “Acknowledgments”, 13. See also. Ulf Wagner in conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020. 140 Tuchman, “Acknowledgments”, 14. 141 Tuchman, “Hidden meanings in abstract art”, in Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting, 1890-1985 ed. Tuchman, 38 142 Ibidem 143 Ibidem, 17. 144 Ibidem, 17. 145 Hilton Kramer, ‘“On the “Spiritual in Art”, in Los Angeles”, The New Criterion, Apiril 1987, https://newcriterion.com/issues/1987/4/on-the-aoespiritual-in-arta-in-los-angeles. 146 Maurice Tuchman, Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, 420.

Imagery”, “Duality”, “Vibration”, “Synaesthesia”, and “Sacred Geometry”. For each room, the curator chose artists corresponding to each theme, according to him.147

Tuchman’s objective was to criticize the formalist idea, the general agreed theory in the Modernist artistic field, that art is practised only for its own sake. He, for instance, criticized Clement Greenberg by saying how Greenberg lauded the formal achievements of Modern artists such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso or Wassily Kandinsky, and later the practice of the abstract expressionist, dismissing the content of the abstract.148 Even though Tuchman opposes the idea of formalism with his exhibition, the assumption about suspicion towards spirituality as a source in art is raised. In the catalogue, the organizers wanted to clarify that the artists were not necessary cult members or religious worshippers. The existence of the “hidden meanings” Tuchman exemplifies with the practice of the various artist, e.g. Kandinsky’s, as he quotes his book On the Spiritual of Art (1912), the following:

The artist must have something to say, for his task is not the mastery of form, but the suitability of that form to its content…. From which it is self-evident that the artist, as opposed to the nonartist has a threefold responsibility: (1) he must render up again that talent which has been bestowed upon him (2) his actions and thoughts and feelings, like those of every human being, constitute the spiritual atmosphere, in such a way that they purify or infer the spiritual air; and (3) these actions and thoughts and feelings are the material for his creations which likewise play a part in constituting the spiritual atmosphere.149

By this quote, Tuchman wanted to show Kandinsky’s commitment to the spiritual, but he admitted that “His immersion in spiritual texts, however, seems to have established his rationale for abstraction.”150 With this sentence, Tuchman meant that Kandinsky’s approach was highly rational and analytical, rather than spiritual.

In the presentation of Hilma af Klint, the aim seemed to be to show some samples of her work rather than a chronological or full presentation of her oeuvre. The idea of a full retrospective presentation was executed later in the first solo exhibition, Secret Paintings by Hilma af Klint, displayed for the first time in August 1988 in Helsinki. For that exhibition, Åke Fant operated as a curator. In The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, the placement of Hilma af Klint in one of the solo

147 Hilton Kramer, “On the “Spiritual in Art”. 148 Tuchman, “Hidden meanings in abstract art”, 18. 149 Ibidem, 35. Original quote from. Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, 213. 150 Tuchman, “Hidden meanings in abstract art”, 35.

rooms in LACMA, was, on the other hand, a provocative act, aiming to raise discussion about the presentation of the traditional art historical canon. This reception, I discuss further in section 3.2.

The aim of af Klint’s placement is revealed by this sentence by Tuchman in the catalogue:

The progression toward abstraction in her work from the 1890s reveals an exceptional case of an artist of the symbolist generation developing outside the mainstream of advanced European artistic circles but fuelled by occult ideas and practices.151

The quote shows that to Tuchman, Hilma af Klint was a marginal artist, who was able to reach the same conclusions as to her contemporary colleagues in European artistic circles. With her placement among the most acknowledged artists of the exhibition as an artist who was never displayed before, Tuchman underlined the unimportance of the traditional canon and questioned the agreed historical narratives of art history. Tuchman’s way to construct the exhibition was highly influenced by the poststructuralist and postmodern philosophy, where the relativity of knowledge and the determination of artist and art is acknowledged.152 Tuchman uses af Klint as proof as to show how widespread the search of the spiritual source in art was in the time of fin-de-siècle.

To conclude, Tuchman wanted to present an exhibition manifesting postmodern and poststructural ideas, which questioned the universality of historical narratives and favour theories on the relativity of knowledge. The poststructuralist way of thinking is visible in the intention to see the displayed artists not only through visible artistry but also through ideas behind the works, a.k.a so-called “hidden meanings” or the spiritual in art. The presentation of Hilma af Klint was serving this objective in two ways: firstly, the way of presenting her was a provocative move to question the meta-narrative of canonical masters of abstract art. Secondly, her oeuvre and story supported Tuchman’s theory on the widespread spiritual interest among artists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nevertheless, the presentation of Hilma af Klint was ground-breaking. In the next chapter, I will discuss the incidents, which led to her oeuvre being presented in Los Angeles, containing the influence of the agents who brought her from the nearly complete obscurity face-to-face with the international audience.

151 Ibidem, 40. 152 Danto, After the End of Art, 12.

3.1. The way to Los Angeles

The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1885 was the first exhibition, where Hilma af Klint’s artworks were presented to the broader public, and it is still today acknowledged as the first public display of the Paintings for the Temple. Before this presentation in 1986, af Klint was undoubtedly unknown, but her works had been presented to some professionals and institutions. The family promoted the paintings to be shown to the general audience, e.g. the request to show the paintings in Moderna Museet in the 1960s.153 However, most of these initiatives did not succeed until the 1980s, when af Klint’s work was displayed in Los Angeles. This chapter intends to pinpoint the possible agents and events involved in the early years of Hilma af Klint’s research and promotion before the display in LACMA in 1986.

Probably the earliest encounter with the Paintings for the Temple was recounted in the article of the theologian Per Beskow (1926-2016) in Sydsvenska Dagbladet, in 1987, where he describes his encounter with af Klint’s art in 1966:

I got to know Hilma af Klint in Uppsala in 1966 as recently graduated associate professor in religious history. Professor Carl Martin Edsman had found her nephew, admiral Erik af Klint who wanted some advice. What should the admiral do with the paintings his aunt endowed, many in a huge size and all of them enrolled and stored in a barn somewhere? Hilma af Klint had given precise instructions that these [paintings] should be shown only to those who took her and her message seriously. Edman, his student Ragnar Alcén and I had to ensure this and promise to be quiet about the existence of the paintings before the admiral opened the envelope and let us see some black and white photographs of the paintings. After some negotiation, he gave up, and Alcén got the chance to photograph giant canvases in a room borrowed for that purpose. Based on a couple of hundred coloured diapositives he wrote a licentiate thesis, but he never graduated as a doctor. 154

153 e.g. Birgitta Rubin, ”En ovanlig konstnärinna. ”Andarna” görde henne till en föregångare”, Dagens Nyheter, 24th September 1988, 3. 154 Per, Beskow, ”Orättvist om Hilma af Klint”, Sydsvenska Dagbladet. 12th December 1987. Orginal quote:: ”Jag stiftade bekantskap med Hilma af Klint i Uppsala 1966 som nyvorden docent i religionshistoria. Professor Carl Martin Edsman hade uppsökts av hennes brorson, amiralen Erik af Klint, som ville ha råd. Vad skulle amiralen göra med sin fasters efter lämnade målningar, många i jätteformat och alla hoprullade i ett lager någonstans? Hilma af Klint hade gett noggranna instruktioner att de enbart fick visas för dem som tog henne och hennes budskap på allvar. Edsman, hans elev Ragnar Alcén och jag fick försäkra detta och lova hålla tyst om målningarnas existens innan amiralen öppnade ett kuvert och låt oss se några svartvita foton av målningar. Efter en del förhandlingar lossnade det, och Alcén fick tillfälle att fotografera de jättelika dukarna i en för tillfället lånad lokal. Utifrån ett par hundra färg diabilder skrev han sedan en licens-avhandling men fullföljde aldrig tanken att doktorera. I dag är detta inaktuellt. Jag har aldrig sedan räknat med att målningarna mera skulle nå offentligheten.”

Ragnar Alcén never published or executed the mentioned thesis about af Klin. Under his name, it is possible to find only one publication from the Swedish Royal Library, Den Liberala katolska kyrkan (1967) (English: The Liberal Catholic Church), which is neither discussing Hilma af Klint nor her oeuvre. Thus, Alcén did not seem to continue with the research on af Klint, and his further professional career, besides this one book, is not in my knowledge. Nevertheless, the mention of Beskow shows that af Klint was already investigated in the 1960s before the interest towards the artist rose again in the 1980s.

The Hilma af Klint Foundation was officially founded in 1972 by the nephew of the artist, Erik af Klint.155 Åke Fant was part of the foundation since the beginning.156 According to Gertrud Sandqvist, the Paintings for the Temple were already offered to Moderna Museet once in the 1960s, but the paintings were not accepted.157 Instead, they were deposited in the barn in Järna where Fant later brought several specialists to see them. Both Ulf Wagner and Maaretta Jaukkuri had the same experience being brought to see the paintings by Fant in the barn of Järna. During my conversation with Wagner in May 2020, he told about his experience encountering the paintings in the late 1970s:

The first time I encountered the paintings of Hilma af Klint was in the barn where Åke Fant took me. And everything was laying in those boxes. It was just a little room, maybe 20 square meters. --- I have been part of the Foundation since then. --- And in 1995, I became a board member of the Foundation. I took over after Åke Fant, who first became ill and then he suddenly died.158

Fant seemed to be an agent who was actively presenting the paintings to others and in that way broadening the field of Hilma af Klint. According to Sandqvist, Fant was also involved in the presentation of the paintings to the specialists of The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985. By the report of Sandqvist, Fant presented the oeuvre directly to Sixten Ringbom, who presented it to Maurice Tuchman.159 Wagner, on the other hand, states, that Fant introduced the paintings to Ringbom trough Konrad Oberhuber, who was also involved in the production of the Los Angeles’ exhibition. Wagner tells about the incident in the following way: “Ringbom was responsible for the Nordic part of the exhibition. And Oberhuber was a co-worker to him at that time. But it was Oberhuber, who said that they must include these paintings in the exhibition.”160

155 “About”, The Hilma af Klint Foundation, last visited: 18th August 2020, https://www.hilmaafklint.se/om-stiftelsen/. 156 Ulf Wagner in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020 157 Sandqvist, ‘"I immediately said Yes" - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time”. see also, Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 19 158 Ulf Wagner in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020 159 Sandqvist, ‘"I immediately said Yes" - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time”. 160 Ibidem.

Maaretta Jaukkuri presented another story about the inclusion of the artworks. According to her, Ringbom came into the knowledge of these paintings through his contact with the personal secretary of af Klint, Olof Sundstöm, who after Hilma af Klint’s death worked as an archivist at The Donner Institute in Turku, Finland.161 The Donner Institute supports religious and cultural history and is in close collaboration with Åbo Akademi, the only multi-faculty Swedish speaking university of Finland. During the last years of af Klint, Sundström catalogued and photographed her paintings.162 According to Jaukkuri, Sundström brought these catalogues to Finland.163

For instance, the following sentence tells about the position of Sundström in The Donner Institute: “In the protocol, it is decided that Mr Sundström continues mainly as an administrator of the anthroposophist department, as well as executes some specified tasks --”164 The protocols show that Sundström worked as an administrator of the anthroposophist department at The Donner Institute, but af Klint or the existence of the Paintings for the Temple is not discussed in the given material. However, the anthroposophist department of Åbo Akademi was in the significant interest to Ringbom during the writing process of his book, The Sounding Cosmos (1970). Moreover, Ringbom was a long-term professor at Åbo Akademi. It is highly likely that he worked closely to the anthroposophist department. Even though any analysed source does not prove the direct connection between Sundström and Ringbom, it could be speculated that they probably encountered with each other in the halls of the library, and they might have begun to discuss af Klint’s paintings.

As a small conclusion, my argument is that all three stories about presenting af Klint’s oeuvre to Tuchman could be correct as a combination. Ringbom might have encountered the paintings through Sundström already in the 1960s and 1970s, then remembered them again at the time of The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, in 1986 and could have presented Oberhuber and Fant to each other. Nevertheless, it is not important, who was the first initiator, but the fact that all three stories show the appearance and habitus of these agents: Fant, Ringbom, Sundtröm, Oberhuber and Tuchman, whom all had a role in the early research field of Hilma af Klint. Even though the description of the travel of the works of Hilma af Klint to Los Angeles is not without gaps, it shows

161 Protocols of the Donner Institute, The Donner Institute Archives 6th October 1958 § 9. 14th October 1960 § 16. 10th April 1961 § 6 and § 7. 10th September 1962 § 1. 162 ”About”, The Hilma af Klint Foundation. 163 Maaretta Jaukkuri in Conversation with Anni Reponen 22nd of November 2019 164 Protocol of the Donner Institute, The Donner Institute Archives, 14th October 1960 § 16. Original quote: ”--Till protokollet beslöts anteckna, att herr Sundström även i fortsättningen huvudsakligen skulle handha vården av den antroposofiska avdelningen samt sköta vissa specialuppdrag, --”

well that af Klint has been actively presented to the institutions or promoted by specific figures. Also, it shows that the display of af Klint’s work was not the result of one person but rather a combination of various agents’ actions. It also proves the variable habitus of the specific figures. As an example, even though Åke Fant participated in the investigation and promotion of the artist since the very beginning, he did not achieve the results alone. It is highly likely that without his connections to Ringbom and Oberhuber, possessing high cultural capital in international connections, the oeuvre of af Klint would have never made its way to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

3.2. “Why does she have her own room?” – A wanted sample of the break of the canon

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the reception of Hilma af Klint’s art during the tour of the Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, which was displayed in three cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Haag. However, in this analysis, I will only concentrate on the reviews written on the exhibitions in Los Angeles and Haag, as the display in Chicago gained only a minor interest among the critics. Because of language limitations, the reviews are collected from the United States, Sweden, and Finland. This analysis contains eight articles, which are collected from the most read newspapers of these three countries. They are The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Expressen, Helsingin Sanomat and Sydsvenska Dagbladet. Also, I have included the art critical article of Hilton Kramer from The New Criterion, as a representation of a specialized review.

During this chapter, I aim to see what effects the general aims of the exhibition did have on the reviews. These aims were to unveil the “hidden meanings” in abstract art, by which Tuchman meant “the spiritual in art”. This unveiling of meanings meant to contrapose the formalist and Modernist theories, represented, e.g. by Clement Greenberg. Hilma af Klint was used as an example of an artist, who was able to have the same conclusions in isolation as her contemporary colleagues in European circles. Secondly, Tuchman placed af Klint among the four traditional pioneers Mondrian, Kupka, Kandinsky and Malevich. The action intended to provoke a questioning of the agreed narratives of the Modernist thinking, and in this way, the exhibition was a manifest of poststructuralist ideas, questioning the universality of knowledge, as, e.g. Michel Foucault has presented.

Besides fulfilling the aim of seeing the general influences of the exhibition, my second objective is to see the influences of the prominent figures in the discursive field around af Klint, Sixten Ringbom and Åke Fant. Hence, I compare the reviews with the catalogue articles written by Fant and Ringbom. Fant also wrote an article about af Klint for Svenska Dagbladet, with the name “Det andliga i 1900- talets konst”, (English: “The Spiritual in the 20th Century Art”). The article is a review, which describes the curatorial organization of the exhibition held in Los Angeles, and later concentrates on af Klint. In the article, Fant presents the biography of af Klint, e.g. the spiritual seances with The Five and the influences for Helena P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant at the same time underlying her pioneering role in abstract art. Fant repeats the aim of af Klint’s presentation: her oeuvre is the proof, how an artist can be inspired by mysticism, even though she is not an active part of the European circles, where the interest to mysticism was widespread.165 Ringbom, on the other hand, in his article of the Los Angeles exhibition catalogue, “Transcending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Art”, concentrates on the sexual meanings in af Klint’s paintings, where he sees, for example, the botanic motifs as the representation of the human relations.166 I hypothesise that the influential agents, such as Fant, and Ringbom, affected the general discourse on the artist.

In this chapter, I will categorize the authors according to their geographical location. First, I will discuss the American discourse, which is represented by the articles of the art critic Hilton Kramer and the art historian and critic Michael Brenson. Both American reviewers wrote about the exhibition held in Los Angeles. Kramer already influenced on the exhibition, as in the catalogue, he is mentioned being one of the advisors for the research of early modernism and abstract expressionism.167 His article, “On the Spiritual in Art” in Los Angeles”, published in The New Criterion in April 1987, criticized Tuchman’s vision of finding meanings in artworks as in Kramer‘s view, they are presented in a way where the original point is “lost in fact, in the mists of idle speculation, false claims, and arbitrary interpretation.”168 Kramer wrote the article after the exhibition was held in Los Angeles, similarly did Brenson with his article “Art View; How the Spiritual Infused the Abstract” in The New York Times.

In these two American articles, the interest in Tuchman’s vision is the principal theme. The reviewers wanted to understand this vision to find spirituality in art, but on the other hand, they were tackling the question about the relativity of knowledge. Even though the vision of Tuchman of the “hidden

165 Fant: ”Det andliga I 1900-talets konst”, 14 166 Ringbom, “Transcending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Art”, 143. 167 Tuchman, “Acknowledgments”, 14. 168 Kramer, “On the “Spiritual in Art” in Los Angeles”.

meanings” as such would have been agreed, placing Hilma af Klint among the four traditional painters, clearly provoked the reviewers both in the United States and in the Nordic Countries.

Brenson’s focus on the exhibition is more explanatory than critical. Thus, he aims to explain to the reader the findings of the exhibition curators rather than discuss them critically. The discovery of the “hidden meaning”, the spiritual source in the oeuvre of the four traditional masters and the review of the displayed work was his main focus. The findings are repeated in a highly similar way to the catalogue Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, but also the timing of the exhibition is contemplated. Brenson writes that the show is ground-breaking as it is the first one which suggests not only, how widespread the artistic dissatisfaction with all institutional forms of thinking has been in history, but how widespread it was particularly in the 1980s. Brenson also mentions the massive catalogue and the contribution by Ringbom, as an example of the broader forum of art historians, which was not only limited in the United States and the Western European countries.169 This is also showing, how in the 1980s, the art historical narrative was highly limited geographically, and the Nordic countries were practically excluded from the traditional canons.

Even though Brenson was pleased about the broader forum for art historians and artists, he barely mentions af Klint. Nevertheless, the provocation of placing of Hilma af Klint somewhat worked with him. He writes first about the four traditional pioneers, carefully detailing their artistic practice, and then about Hilma af Klint, he writes only the following sentence:

There are, in effect, five solo shows: on Kandinsky, Kupka, Malevich, Mondrian and Hilma af Klint, a previously unknown Swedish artist whose somewhat mechanical abstract paintings and drawings of organic, geometrical forms were marked by Theosophy and Anthroposophy.170

Breson’s lack of interest exemplifies the view that af Klint was a marginal phenomenon, who was seen nearly not worth to be mentioned. Similarly, in the catalogue review written by John Dillenberger in The Los Angeles Times “The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985”, the Swedish artist is not mentioned at all, even though the canonised pioneers and the importance of Tuchman’s exhibition as the breaker of traditional narratives are widely discussed.171 Thus, the

169 Michael Brenson, “Art View; How the Spiritual infused the Abstract”, The New York Times, 21st December 1986, https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/21/arts/art-view-how-the-spiritual-infused-the-abstract.html. 170Ibidem. 171 John Dillenberg, “The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985”, Los Angeles Times, 22nd February 1987, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-02-22-bk-5047-story.html.

Swedish artists seemed thus to be in minor interest in the American articles. However, Hilton Kramer’s article concentrates more on af Klint, but not from a positive angle:

--something must be said about an artist who is being acclaimed as the exhibition’s major “discovery”—the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944). Except in one crucial respect, this artist might very well have been considered a prime candidate for an exhibition on this theme. She is said to have painted in an abstract style as early as 1906, and her art was apparently based on spiritualist doctrine. The trouble is the pictures exhibited in the “Spiritual” show are not very good. As documents in the history of abstraction, they have a certain interest, to be sure, but it is not an aesthetic interest. Af Klint’s paintings are essentially colored diagrams. To accord them a place of honor alongside the work of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich, and Kupka, in the section of the exhibition devoted to the pioneers of abstraction, is absurd. Af Klint is simply not an artist in their class, and—dare one say it?—would never have been given this inflated treatment if she had not been a woman.172

Kramer’s irritated perception could have been caused by various reasons. He seems to agree with the criticism towards the formalist approach, but not the way, the criticism is executed. He writes:

My own view of this issue is, alas, a deeply divided one. On the one hand, I am not myself satisfied that a formalist reading of a work of art can ever wholly account for either our experience of it or the complexity of the impulses that have entered into its creation. On the other hand, I know very well that the many critics and scholars who now feel at liberty to offer fanciful “interpretations” of art— modern art included—are mostly talking nonsense or something worse than nonsense, something that seriously misrepresents the nature of art itself.173

In these two quotes, the perception of Kramer could be understood in two ways. He agrees with the criticism of formalism but does not want to let go of the established historical canon or presentation of art where it is understood as purely made for art's sake. The presentation of af Klint and the critique of her placement is truly provocative on Kramer’s side as well. Besides criticizing Kramer’s clearly misogynist comment, I argue that he forgets Tuchman’s original intention to use af Klint as a prove of the widespread spiritual source in artistic practice, rather than to use her as a representation of gender diversity.

Next, I will discuss the Nordic discourse. This analysis includes the Swedish authors, the art critic, artist and art historian Peter Cornell, the journalist Steve Sem-Sandberg (b.1958), theologian Per

172 Kramer, “On the “Spiritual in Art” in Los Angeles”. 173 Ibidem.

Beskow, the journalist and author Kristian Romare and the Finnish author and former director of the EMMA Museum of Modern Art in Espoo, Finland, Markku Valkonen (b.1946).

After the first display, some of the authors continued in the discursive field around af Klint. One of these examples is Cornell. He reviewed the first tour, writing about the display held in Haag, and since then has continued to write regular reviews on af Klint. His articles are also analysed in the cases of the exhibitions Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988 and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013. Similarly, the author and the journalist Kristian Romare stayed in the discursive field around af Klint during the 1980s, writing first in 1987 to Sydsvenska Dagbladet with the title “Det andliga i konsten och Hilma af Klint” (English: “The Spirituality in Art and Hilma af Klint”), and later to Palletten in January 1988 with the title “Hilma af Klint – upptäckt i den occulta vägen”. (English: “Hilma af Klint – Discovered in the Occult Road”). Valkonen, on the other hand, was a director of EMMA Museum of Modern Art, where the group exhibition Feel the Spirit!, including af Klint’s works, was displayed in 2014. Even though the names of Beskow and Sem-Sandberg do not appear in the later review analysis, their careers have been acknowledgeable in other ways. Beskow was a long-term biblical scholar and theologian working at the Lund University, and Sem-Sandberg is an award-winning author and non-fictional novelist.

All these four reviewers wrote after the presentation in Haag, which testifies the focus of interest to the European cultural field rather than to the American debutant display. Although in the American discursive field Hilma af Klint received a minimum amount of attention, in the Nordic field she was discussed widely in the published reviews. In the Nordic field, the major interest was in the marginality of af Klint, which was contrasted with the geographical location of the artist. Thus, the articles saw the placement of af Klint among the four other pioneers ground-breaking not for the artist’s sake but for the sake of the Nordic countries’ art field.174

The importance of the event for the Nordic cultural field is discussed, e.g. in the review of Peter Cornell “Hilma, svensk ande i konsten” (Hilma, Swedish Spirit in Art”), which is subtitled as “Peter Cornell finds the fifth room at the museum in Haag”.175 He calls the inclusion of af Klint “in the

174 e.g. Markku Valkonen, “Hilma af Klintin vaikea tie mystiseen abstraktioon”, Helsingin Sanomat, 4th October 1987. Markku Valkonen is the one who pinpoints in his article about the importance of Hilma af Klint’s inclusion to the Nordic cultural field. 175 Peter Cornell, ”Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, 5. Original quote: “Peter Cornell hittar ett femte rum på museum i Haag.”

Swedish perspective, quite a sensational artistic event”.176 Therefore, Cornell underlines the entering of the Swedish artist into the canonized artworld, which traditionally was limited to the Central- and Western European as well as American artists. He seems to be generally delighted about the questioning approach of the Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, where the spiritual meanings of artworks are put into the spotlight. This is understandable, as Cornell himself was interested in the same topic.

In his book, Den hemliga källan (1981), Cornell writes about the spiritual source in art, discussing the four pioneers of abstraction in particular: Kupka, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich. Cornell underlines the similarity of their artistic practices and spiritual ideology, influenced by Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky.177 Hence, in the review about af Klin, and her role as a fifth pioneer, Cornell says the following:

Is Hilma af Klint the fifth pioneer then? She is, without a doubt, a rare art historical discovery, but she naturally cannot equal with the four. The paintings by her which are now shown in Haag contain a remarkable approach what, it seems, that she never has really completed, maybe because she did not have the self-confidence to break free and realize that the spiritual messages of the shapes of the images came from herself. 178

In the same way, Sem-Sandberg in his article “Det andliga i konsten” (English: “The Spiritual in Art”) was provoked by the placing of af Klint. He compares Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Malevich together, saying that their art emerges from the same spiritual source, but Kandinsky honestly believed in ideas of Blavatsky when Mondrian and Malevich approached the spirituality in a more analytical perspective.179 Next, he writes:

If one puts these three mutually diverse artists [Mondrian, Malevich and Kandinsky] in comparison with Kupka (whose actions as an abstract pioneer can be doubtful) and Hilma af Klint, who described herself as a medium instead of an artist, the warp becomes even more defined. If not even af Klint was ready to put her pictures in any aesthetic meaning, it at least seems questionable to do it in a context

176 Peter Cornell, ”Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, 5. Orginal quote from the whole sentence: ”Det handlar alltså inte minst ur svenskt perspektiv, om en ganska sensationell konshändelse.” 177 Peter Cornell, Den hemliga källan, 157. 178 Cornell, ”Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, 5. Orginal quote: ”Är då Hilma af klint den femte pionjären? Hon är utan tvivel ett sällsynt konsthistoriskt fynd men hon kan naturligt nog inte mäta sig med de fyra. De målningar av henne som nu visas i Haag rymmer en märkvärdig ansats som hon aldrig riktigt tycks ha fullföljt, kanske för att hon inte hade självförtroende nog att sparka undan stöttorna och inse att de andliga meddelandena om bildernas form kom inifrån henne själv.” 179 Steve Sem-Sandberg, “Det andliga i konsten”, Svenska Dagbladet,18th November 1987, 18.

like this. With this comparison, it is not only the works of af Klint that lose but also Mondrian’s and Kandinsky’s inevitably reduce to illustrations of some esoteric theory or technique.180

Sem-Sandberg’s angle, however, is different from Cornell’s. Even though he underlines the exclusion of af Klint from other pioneers like Cornell, he seems to be more provoked by the curatorial practice than any artist in particular. Still, in Sem-Sandberg’s text, Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian seem to be admired and presented as victims of, according to him, a bad curatorial practice where they have been compared to artists whose actions as abstract pioneers can be doubtful.181

With these quotes, Cornell and Sem-Sandberg underline the exclusion of Hilma af Klint from the four pioneers. Even though Cornell does not see af Klint as part of the traditional pioneers, he states that the messages come from af Klint herself. It shows some doubts to Fant’s message seeing af Klint working only as a mediator. Fant writes: “She herself did not understand the message in these pictures and Steiner did not analyse them for her. She considered this inability to understand her own work the tragedy of her life”.182 This quote of Fant is essential, as it established the image of af Klint as a passive mediator instead of a creator. This image, which influenced the perception of af Klint throughout the 1980s, is further discussed in chapter four.

In the review of Markku Valkonen, Fant’s beliefs are repeated with less filter. In his double article “Mystiikka abstraktion vipusimena” (English: ”Mysticism as a Boost of Abstraction”) and ”Hilma af Klintin vaikea tie mystiseen abstraction” (English: The Difficult Road of Hilma af Klint to the Mystic Abstraction”) he first repeats Fant’s statement about the lack of af Klint’s understanding for her own paintings.183 However, Valkonen agrees with the necessity to present af Klint among the canonised pioneers and interprets the paintings with admiration: “Esoteric symbolistic forms with triangles, rectangles and spirals are repeated in more and more interesting groups. The paintings are everything else than only creation of subconsciousness.”184

180 Ibidem, 18. Orginal quote:”Ställer man sedan dessa tre inbördes mycket olika konstnärer mot Kupka (vars insatser som abstrakt pionjär kan betvivlas) och Hilma af klint som betraktade sig som medium hellre än konstnär, blir skevheten ännu mera markerad. Om inte ens af Klint var beredd att tillskriva sina bilder någon estetisk innebörd ter det sig minst sagt betänkligt att göra det i ett sammanhang som detta. Vid jämförelsen är det ju inte bara af Klints arbeten som förlorar, utan också Mondrians och Kandinskys reduceras oundvikligen till illustrationer av en eller annan esoterisk teori eller teknik.” 181 Ibidem, 18. 182 Åke Fant, ”The Case of the Artist Hilma af Klint”, Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, ed. Tuchman, 157. 183 Markku Valkonen: “Hilma af Klintin vaikea tie mystiseen abstraktioon”, 18. 184 Ibidem, 18. Orginal quote: ”Esoteeriset sybolikuviot, kolmioineen, neliöineen ja spiraaleineen toistuvat yhä kiinnostavampina ryhminä. Maalaukset ovat kaikkea muuta kuin mielen taantuman luomuksia.”

References to Fant also show up when Valkonen compares af Klint to the Swedish artist Ernst Josephson, whose artistry has been famed by mental illness. Fant mentions Josephson, for example, in the article of the catalogue, saying the following:

Af Klint was not alone in Swedish art history in working with spiritualist, automatic drawings; the painter Ernst Josephson worked during the 1880s in a manner similar to that of af Klint’s group. Josephson became mentally ill, but his delusions that he was Michelangelo, Raphael or Christ led to extraordinary free and revolutionary drawings.185

Even though neither Fant nor Valkonen claims that af Klint was mentally ill, her comparison to Josephson is meant to serve as an example to show how spiritually concentrated artists can take an alarming end.186 The tone of comparison of the two artists, who had undoubtedly different perspectives, should be taken into consideration: Hilma af Klint believed she talked with the spirits, Josephson believed he was someone else. The difference between these two artists’ world views is hence significant. The comparison to Josephson is also discussed in the sarcastic text of Kristian Romare “Det andliga i konsten och Hilma af Klint” (English: The Spiritual in Art and Hilma af Klint) in Sydsveska Dagbladet. Romare writes:

In the big American catalogue for the exhibition, Tuchman stresses the case of Hilma af Klint as proof that an artist could reach pure abstraction without passing through cubism. And so far, I agree with him. Her art has sufficient content to be worth interest like a weird adventure which also Ernst Josephson did with his spiritual seances in connection to him falling ill.187

Romare straightforwardly claims Hilma af Klint to have been mentally ill. About the placement of Hilma af Klint, Romaire also writes in the following way:

Gementemuseum owns remarkable collection both of Kandinsky and Holland’s own prominent figure, Mondrian. One may expect that a picture of some of these figures of pride would decorate the Dutch catalogue. But no, a geometric painting from 1914-15 of this newly found Swedish af Klint is placed

185 Fant, ”The Case of the Artist Hilma af Klint”, 155-156. 186 Valkonen: “Hilma af Klintin vaikea tie mystiseen abstraktioon”, 18. 187 Krstian Romaire, ”Det andliga i konsten och Hilma af Klint”, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 30th November 1987, 4. Orginal quote: ”I den stora amerikanska katalogen till utställningen framhåller Tuchman fallet Hilma af Klint som ett belägg för att en konstnär kunde komma fram till den rena abstraktionen utan att passera kubismen. Och så långt följer jag honom. Hennes konst har tillräcklig halt för att vara värd intresse som ett märkligt äventyr på den väg som också Ernst Josephson slog in på med sina spiritistiska seanser i samband med insjuknandet.”

in it. I see the Dutch title with a significant lapsus “The Mystery of the Abstract”. Can one think a pioneer completely lost in obscurity? How mystifying!188

With these quotes, Romare claims that an artist cannot be raised to the level of the “agreed pioneers” if she has been completely hidden. Romare mocks mystification, but adds later, that this apparent “provocation of the exhibition” is aimed to lift the interest towards spiritualism in abstract art.189 He did not agree with the placement of Hilma af Klint, and the reason could be the same as Kramer’s. The echoes of formalism, presenting art for art’s sake, are still influencing strongly in Kramer’s and Romare’s articles.

Nevertheless, a couple of months later, Per Beskow defends af Klint in the same newspaper. He starts his article “Orättvist om Hilma af Klint” (English: “Unfairly about Hilma af Klint”) to Sydsvenska Dagbladet with the following:

In sds 30/11, I read for a great surprise that Hilma af Klint has gotten a worldwide reputation as a pioneer in abstract painting. Not because it is “nonsense” or “fishy” as Kristian Romaire writes in his nasty article but because she has actually been paid attention to. Namely, her oeuvre has been hidden in secretness for many years.190

According to Beskow, the occultism of Hilma af Klint is the aspect which irritates Romare. My own argument follows Beskow’s perception. The Spirituality in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 was indeed a provocative exhibition which attacked the agreed historical narratives in art. The inclusion of af Klint was the icing on the cake, which provoked even more in an already provocative exhibition. Another aspect attacked was the story of her discovery. The critics did not see the discovery of the hidden artist as the decisive fact, but more as an argument against af Klint’s relevancy. Af Klint’s art was indeed admired already in 1986 and 1987, but her existence seemed to have caused more provocation than admission. The Nordic reviewers saw her as a potential booster for the Nordic cultural climate, and as a challenger of the established canon. Still, the attention towards the artist

188 Ibidem, 4. Orginal quote: ”Gementemuseum äger förnämliga samlingar såväl av Kandinsky som av den egna portalgestalten i Holland, Mondrian. Man kunde väntat sig att en bild av någon av dessa stoltheten skulle pryda den holländska katalogen. Men nej, där har man placerat en geometrisk målning från 1914–15 av denna ny upptäckta svenska af Klint. Jag noterar att rubriken på holländska med en kanske signifikativ glidning blivit. ”De abstraktas mysterium.” Kan man tänka sig en pionjär helt i det fördolda? Tala om mystifikation!” 189 Ibidem, 4. 190 Beskow, ”Orättvist om Hilma af Klint”. Orginal quote: ”I sds 30/11 läser jag till min stora förvåning att Hilma af Klint har fått världsrykte som en pionjär inom det abstrakta måleriet. Inte därför att det skulle vara "nonsens" eller "en ploj" som Kristian Romare skriver i sin spydiga artikel utan därför att hon överhuvudtaget har uppmärksammats. Hennes verk har nämligen under många år omgetts med sekretess.”

was minor in the American cultural field, and the exhibition as such was barely noticed in the Nordic cultural area. However, the influence of Fant was shown in the Nordic articles, and his perceptions, such as comparison to Ernst Josephson and Hilma af Klint’s struggle to understand her own paintings, spread to the broader audience. Also, it has to be noticed how the critics, who already influenced the exhibition, later wrote articles about it. This is proven in the cases of Kramer and Fant. Fant wrote actively in different publications during and after the exhibition of LACMA. The activity of Fant in spreading knowledge about af Klint is shown again in the analysis of the first solo exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint.

4. THE FINNISH START

The solo exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint opened at the venue of the Nordic Arts Centre, Galleria Rantakasarmi, Helsinki in August 1988. The curator of the exhibition, Åke Fant collaborated with the Nordic Arts Centre and its head of exhibitions Maaretta Jaukkuri, the director Birgitta Lönell, and the employee Kirsti Berg. The Nordic Arts Centre was in contact primarily with Fant but also the nephew of Hilma af Klint, Gustaf was in charge on behalf of the Hilma af Klint Foundation. Due to the examination of the interview held with Jaukkuri, this chapter is concentrating mostly on her perspective of the display. Jaukkuri is an acknowledged long-term art historian who has widened the international cultural contacts in Finland. Moreover, she carries a Foundation by her name, the Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation, which is situated in Lofoten, Norway.191 Besides Helsinki, the exhibition was shown at the PS1 New York, which is currently part of Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA). Moreover, the exhibition toured to Listafins Islands in Reykjavik and F15 Gallery, Moss, Norway, where the tour ended in July 1989.192

This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section concentrates on the production of the exhibition as well as the relationships with the different touring institutions and agents involved in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. Especially, it discusses the productions of the displays held in Helsinki and New York. Section 4.1. discusses the aims of the curator Åke Fant, and how Hilma af Klint was portrayed during Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint. Section 4.2. discusses the reception of the exhibition. The used material mainly consists of the archival documents of the Nordic Arts Centre,

191 “Mission” Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation, last visited 14th March, 2020: http://mjfoundation.no/left/mission/. 192 “Exhibitions”, The Hilma af Klint Foundation, last visited 18th August 2020: https://www.hilmaafklint.se/utstallningar/.

held in the Danish National Archives, which are mainly letters between the agents of the Nordic Arts Centre and the art institutions involved in the tour of the display. Additionally, as a material, I use my interview with Jaukkuri, which was held on the 22nd of November 2019.

According to individual sources, the exhibition Occult Painter and Abstract Pioneer held in Moderna Museet Stockholm between 1989 and 1990 was included into the tour of the Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint. This is mentioned, e.g. in the letter, Jaukkuri wrote to Dominique Nahas, the curator of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse in the USA in March 1989.193 Also, Gustaf af Klint mentions the same fact in the introduction of Gurli Lindén’s book, I Describe the Way and Meanwhile, I am Proceeding Along It (1998). Gustaf af Klint adds, that, the same exhibition of Moderna Museet toured later to Gothenburg and Lund in Sweden as well as to Odense in Denmark.194 Although these two exhibition tours are often joined together as one, for the sake of clarity, I will treat the exhibitions of the Nordic Arts Centre (1988) and Moderna Museet (1989) as separate ones in this dissertation because of their different names and catalogues.

During the discussion with Jaukkuri, she explained that she encountered the art of af Klint first trough the investigation of the catalogue The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890 -1985. By her report, she was immediately stunned by af Klint’s paintings and was craving to know more about this Swedish painter. Therefore she wrote to Fant, and they agreed to arrange a meeting for autumn 1987 in Stockholm.195 Jaukkuri discussed the first meeting and encounter with the paintings in an emotional tone:

--- and then we [Åke Fant and Maaretta Jaukkuri] agreed to meet in Stockholm. He took me to the old barn, which was used as a storage space. It was somewhere near the Anthroposophical Centre in Järna. It was a grey and gloomy autumn day in October. We went into the barn, he took a crate, opened it, and started to unroll the paintings. I was about to faint just there. I had never seen anything like that. 196

Concurrently, in the same autumn of 1987, Jaukkuri worked as a representative of the Nordic Art Centre in the committee organizing the group exhibition entitled Nordic Concrete Art, organized at the Amos Andersson Museum in Helsinki, and which later toured to the Art Museum of Norrköping, Sweden, Heine-Onstad Art Centre, Norway, Hovikodden Listasafn, Reykjavik, and Brandts

193 Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Dominique Nahas, 1st March 1989, Danish National Archves. 194 Gustaf af Klint, “Foreword”, 9. 195 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen in Helsinki on 22nd of October 2019. 196 Ibidem. The first painting Jaukkuri saw was Swan no.17 (1915) (Figure 1.).

Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark. In this exhibition, four paintings by af Klint were presented in total. Those were Key to the Work from Group 3. Series WU (1907), Untitled from Group 2. Series WU (1907), Buddha’s Point of View on Earthly Life. Series II, (1920), The Doctrine Buddhism Series II (1920).197 This was the first time that the paintings of af Klint were displayed in the Nordic countries. Even though The Nordic Concrete Art did not yet bring af Klint as popular interest, it shows the close involvement of Jaukkuri in the early years of af Klint’s display.

After the meeting in Järna, the preparations for Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint begun. As the paintings were stored unframed, they were sent to the Ateneum Art Museum, to be examined and framed. During the interview, Jaukkuri told me about the initiative process of the exhibition:

I learned that Fant had been in talks with Moderna Museet various times, and they were also planning an exhibition, but the project had not developed. However, it is possible that there was a tentative promise. I contacted Lars Nittve to ask if we can show these paintings in Helsinki.198

Lars Nittve (b.1953) was a director of Moderna Museet between the years 2001 and 2010; hence he was also partially involved in the organization of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013. In 1988, he was working as a senior curator at Moderna Museet. The comment by Jaukkuri shows how Moderna Museet had already had contact with the Foundation at the beginning of the 1980s, but also it shows the involvement of Nittve in the discursive field around Hilma af Klint. As said before, Moderna Museet was at the first time in contact with the oeuvre of af Klint in the 1960s, when Erik af Klint presented the paintings to the museum, however, having a refusal.199

The events of the organization process mentioned in the quote above are confirmed in the letter, which Jaukkuri sent to Fant in December of 1987. By the report of the letter, Jaukkuri starts to arrange the schedule for the transportation of the art pieces, in order to start the conservation at the latest in February 1988. It was made by the senior conservator of the Ateneum Art Museum, Tuulikki Kilpinen.200

By the report of the analysed letters, Jaukkuri started to arrange the exhibition tour in winter 1987- 1988. In February, she wrote letters at least to the Nikolaj Art Gallery in Copenhagen, Kunsterns Hus

197 Jan Askelad ed. Nordic Concrete Art, (Helsinki: Nordic Arts Centre, 1987), 297-298. 198 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen on the 22nd of November 2019. 199 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 19. 200 Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Åke Fant, 3rd December 1987, Danish National Archives.

in Oslo and Nordjyllands Art Museum (now Kunsten) in Aarhus, Denmark.201 However, none of these art galleries accepted the exhibition in the end.202 The reason for their refusal stays unclear in the letters. However, it could be speculated that the habitus of Hilma af Klint as a nearly undisplayed artist and the Nordic Arts Centre as a medium-size institution combined, were not meeting the requirements of these institutions.

Also, it could be argued that the reason why af Klint was given a refusal was the fact that the refusing institutions had not seen the paintings. This argument could be augmented by the strong reactions the paintings received during their storage time in Helsinki. Jaukkuri describes that she showed the paintings for some artists visiting the venue of the Nordic Arts Centre during the autumn and winter 1987 and 1988 and that one event especially remained in her mind: “I remember a young Norwegian artist who had to go out to vomit after seeing the paintings. The effect was so strong to him.”203 The same reception of the mesmerizing emotions the paintings received at the opening. The exhibition was inaugurated on the 6th of August at Galleria Rantakasarmi, Suomenlinna, Helsinki. During the interview, Jaukkuri described that she had never been in such a silent opening as Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint was. She described how everyone was stunned by the beauty of the paintings and did not believe that this painter had existed.204 The mesmerizing shock what the Norwegian artist and the visitors at the opening experienced is something which was reported later in other exhibitions. The exhibition of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, for instance, gathered same reactions, which could have been the result of the extraordinary way of practice of the artist, and which I argue – has been a speeding mechanism, which keeps the agents promote and investigate the paintings.

The members of the Foundation participated in the opening with the head of the board, Gustaf af Klint. Jaukkuri commented on the attendance of the af Klint family at the opening:

--- they seemed very happy that the first exhibition was organized in Helsinki. As the family had Finnish roots and the venue was at the Nordic Art Centre, which developed projects all around the Nordic region, the place was perfect for the first exhibition.205

201 Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Lise Funder (Nikolaj Art Gallery) on 3rd of February 1988, Danish National Archives. Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Steiner Gjessin (Kunsterns Hus) on 18th of February 1988, Danish National Archives. Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Else Bulow (Nordjyllands Art Museum) on 15th of February 1988, Danish National Archves. 202 Letter from Lise Funder to Maaretta Jaukkuri on 9th of February 1988, Danish National Archives. 203 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen on the 22nd of November 2020. See also Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 14. With the Finnish roots, Jaukkuri means the origins of af Klint’s mother, who was born in Finland. 204 Ibidem. 205 Ibidem.

Although before the art galleries were not eager to take the exhibition as part of their program, after the opening, the Nordic Arts Centre received various letters which showed interest in collaboration. One of the most important events was when the curator of PS1, Rebecca H. Quaytman, wrote to Jaukkuri about her being interested in taking the exhibition to New York.206 Moreover, the Nordic Arts Centre was in contact with the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York and the Perth Curatorial Centre of Australia.

Based on the archival material, the contact between the different art institutions and Jaukkuri was extensive. The letter Jaukkuri wrote to Gustaf af Klint on the 22nd of September 1988 shows her continuous active work to keep in contact with the different international venues in order to execute the tour. In the letter, she tells that the venues in Reykjavik and Moss are confirmed, and outlines plans for the order of the tour display, as she still was uncertain if the exhibition at the PS1 would take place. Also, she had contact with the venues in Australia and Odense, where the exhibition never took place by the unknown reason.207

After the display was confirmed for PS1, the Nordic-American collaboration started. The exhibition was similar to the display in Helsinki, but some paintings were left out by reason of their costly transportation, e.g. the series The Ten Greatest.208 During the organization process in New York, both Fant and Lönnell visited in the United States, with the assistance of the contact person from the Swedish Cultural Institute of New York, Kevin Foxby. Foxby managed the travels of Lönnell and Fant, communicated about the reception in American newspapers and participated in the execution of marketing events for the exhibition in New York.209

Fant travelled to New York to make sure that the hanging was executed as he wished. Kirsti Berg writes to Quaytman in December 1988, when Fant was about to come to New York to hang the paintings at the PS1, which shows the work-ethic of Fant during the project:

206 Letter from Rebecca Quaytman to Maaretta Jaukkuri on 18th of August 1988, Danish National Archives. 207 Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Gustaf af Klint on 22nd of September, 1988, Danish National Archives. Orginal quote: “Om utställningen inte visas i New York så kan Moss ta den i januari. Jag har också haft kontakt med den nya chefen för Brandts klaedefabrik i Odense., Danmark om en eventuell visning där. Han kommer att ta emot sitt arbete där i början av oktober och så får vi veta om det finns intresses sinteresse där.” 208 Letter from Unknown (supposed Jaukkuri) to Åke Fant and Gustaf af Klint 27th of December 1988, Danish National Archives. 209 Letters from Kevin Foxby to Birgitta Lönnell on 21st of November 1988, Danish National Archives.

--- she [Maaretta Jaukkuri] asked me to contact you during her absence regarding the arrival of Åke Fant. As you already might know he plans to arrive on December 31st and would be extremely eager to start working already the next day - on New Year’s Day.210

The exhibition at PS1 opened on 15th of January 1989. The display received more interest than expected as, by the report of the letters, Quaytman ordered new issues of the catalogues of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint.211 Additionally, the Nordic Arts Centre received new offers expressing their interest in af Klint’s oeuvre. In the letter from the Nordic Arts Centre to the PS1, Jaukkuri writes about the further plans in regard to the tour:

Moderna Museet in Stockholm will open her exhibition at Christmas this year. Pompidou Centre has contacted the Foundation but as far as I know nothing definitive is settled. I tried to contact Mr Gustaf af Klint today to hear if there was more to tell, but he is not at home. In the USA we have been contacted by the Everson Art Museum in Syracuse. The Bernard Osher Foundation sees what kind of interest there would be in the West Coast. Besides, the Museum of Montreal in Canada has been interested and Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth. 212

Even though this quote shows that the inaugurations widened the discursive field around af Klint to the institutions which possess high habitus, such as the Centre Pompidou, the contact with these institutions did not continue due to the reasons which remain unknown in the provided letters available. Thus, the tour ended into Moss, Norway in 1989, and continued later in another format to Moderna Museet, also curated by Fant.

To conclude, the discursive field around the topic of Hilma af Klint was highly expanding during the display of Secret Pictures of Hilma af Klint. I argue that the result of the hight interest was done by reason of the paintings, which caused feelings of wonder within the viewers. Also, the international collaboration and work of Jaukkuri made sure that the discursive field of Hilma af Klint widened. However, one reason for the initial lack of interest could have been the cultural capitals of Nordic Arts Centre and Hilma af Klint combined. In other words, an unknown artist might not have been an attractive option to be displayed for some institutions, and the Nordic Arts Centre was a medium- sized institution. This could have been the reason, why the display did not receive more considerable attention before the opening at Helsinki where the paintings were shown to the public, and the feeling of wonder was able to capture the viewers’ attention. Lastly, Åke Fant wished to build an exhibition,

210 Letter from Kirsti Berg to Rebecca Quaytman on 16th of December 1988, Danish National Archives. 211 Letter from Rebecca Quaytman to Maaretta Jaukkuri (No date available), Danish National Archives. 212 Letter from Maaretta Jaukkuri to Rebecca Quaytman in 8th of April 1989, Danish National Archives.

which could show the oeuvre of Hilma af Klint retrospectively. However, as during the organization of The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, the crucial in the widening of the discursive field around af Klint was the contact with the other art historians, who were able to spread the information about the artist. However, Fant’s vision about af Klint was highly visible in the exhibition and largely affected the reviews and public discussion.

4.1. The twofold character of af Klint – Fant’s view

In this section, I will shortly discuss the aims of Åke Fant in the exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint as well as how he described the artist during the display. As a material, this analysis will use the catalogue Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint as well as the article Fant wrote for the cultural magazine of Finland, Taide. Additionally, I use the reference pictures of Galleria Rantakasarmi, provided by the webpage of the Artists Association of Helsinki, and the pictures from the display at PS1 in 1989, available in the digital archives of MoMA.

In August 1988, the first display opened at Galleria Rantakasarmi, on an island in front of Helsinki, called Suomenlinna. In 1988, the venue was in use by the Nordic Arts Centre, but today the same gallery space is used by the Artists Association of Helsinki. The venue included three halls of the approximate size of 41,7 m2 each.213 The number of artworks was high compared to the size of the space: 117 in total.214

Based on the material, Fant aimed to present the artworks retrospectively in chronological order, but the display contained only artworks from the spiritual period. 215 This meant that the display did not include the paintings from af Klint’s figurative period before the year 1906. The works were presented in groups which were Group 1. Urkaos, series WU (1906), Group 2. series WU (1907), Group 3. Great Figurative Paintings (1907), Group 4. The Then Greatest (1097), Group 5 Series WUS (1908), Group 6. Series WUS (1908), Group 8. Series US (1913), Group 9. Series SUW/Swan (1914), Group 9. Series UW/Dove (1915), Group 10. Altar Paintings (1915), The Parsifal Series (1916), The Atom Series (1917) and the watercolour paintings from the 1920s.216

213 “Näyttelytila ja kuvat”, Helsingin taiteilijaseura, last visited 18th of August 2020: https://helsingintaiteilijaseura.fi/haa- galleria/nayttelytila/. 214 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 50-52. 215 “Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Jan 15 - Mar 12, 1989, MoMA PS1”, MoMA, last visited 18th of August 2020: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4507?. 216 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 50-52.

The order of the exhibition and the choice of the artworks show that Fant aimed to follow the order of how he thought af Klint would have presented the paintings. Jaukkuri verifies this with regards to the organization process:

Fant wanted that nothing [the artworks] was left out. He wanted to give an as accurate image as possible about af Klint’s biography and artistic path. --- The whole space was fully hanged. Some of the works were small, but still, the space was full.217

The quote shows Fant’s intention to present af Klint’s oeuvre in its completeness, with indications to her intention in her artistic practice. In the catalogue of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Fant himself also writes about the role of the researcher, comparing his perspective to the point of view of the family member, Erik af Klint with the following: “The role of the researcher is different. He cannot simply latch straight on the emotion-packed experiences of an individual and her struggle.”218 Thus, Fant clearly saw himself as an objective researcher. However, his narrative contained the interpretations of myths which were already present since The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985. Accordingly, it is also necessary to mention that Fant was an agent who mentioned many of these myths as the first. Also, during my analysis, I will consider the fact that Fant possibly interpreted af Klint’s oeuvre from the origins of a member of the Swedish Anthroposophist Society.

One of the narratives Fant presented was the discovery. In Fant’s view, the discovery was a narrative which underlined the concealing of the paintings, as af Klint’s last will indicated them to be hidden until twenty years after her death.219 As I discussed in chapter two, the existence of such a will was later proven untrue, but the catalogue Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint is one of the first texts, where the will is mentioned in this context.220

This narrative of discovery was joined to the narrative of where forerunning researchers broaden the art-historical discourse. In the “Foreword”, Fant writes, that af Klint’s paintings were not known by anyone else but a limited group of family members until the end of the 1970s, and that the value of the oeuvre was not understood until very recently.221 He also details how Erik af Klint intended to present the paintings in “a public institution” without success in the 1960s. 222 Later this “public institution” is known to be Moderna Museet, but Fant did not yet mention this in 1988. Fant discusses

217 Maaretta Jaukkuri in conversation with Anni Reponen on 22nd of November 2019. 218 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 28 219 Ibidem, 27. 220 Ibidem, 19 221 Ibidem 2. 222 Ibidem,19

the broader art historical discourse by linking the display Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint as a continuum to Ringbom’s investigation about the spiritual sources in art and the exhibition The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 and presents this to be one of the reasons, why Hilma af Klint had risen in popularity in the 1980s.223

Thus, Fant argues that the suitable time for the paintings to be displayed was precisely the 1980s. Fant’s interpretation has similarities with the interpretation of Moderna Museet in 2013, but as a difference, Fant never said that af Klint was consciously painting for the future as Moderna Museet’s narrative claimed. This narrative of Moderna Museet is further discussed in chapter five. Nevertheless, the claim of the suitability for the display links the narrative to the characterization of Hilma af Klint’s researchers as forerunners. This means, that in the case of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Fant thanks the bravery of the Nordic Arts Centre and Maaretta Jaukkuri to take the exhibitions as part of their program.224

Secondly, Fant concentrated on the description of af Klint’s character. In the catalogue and article of Taide, the description of the artist is pinpointed to be twofold. On the one hand, she is pictured to be an independent forerunner, whose revolutionary paintings are indeed changing the canonized art history, and on the other hand, the texts draw a picture of an isolated and passive personality, who leaned on male authorities. Fant also divides af Klint’s artistic periods to the extrovert figurative and introvert spiritual painting, which on their own part, highlight the twofold character of the artist.225 Fant discusses the isolation of the artist from the Academy in one of the most influential arguments for the exhibition reviews:

There is nothing to directly indicate that as a student Hilma took an active part in the freedom struggle against the teaching which the male students, with Ernst Josephson at the centre, waged during her time at the Academy. Her strivings to liberation were to be expressed in a different way. On the other hand, she was certainly very interested in the impending struggle of the Konstnärsbundanrna (Artists Associations).226

Later Fant contemplates if the position of women artists could have been a reason to af Klint’s isolation in the Academy.227 However, Fant’s mention of the isolation at the Academy and the comparison to Josephson, made many reviewers contemplate the mental health of af Klint, moreover

223 Ibidem 2. 224 Ibidem 2. 225 Ibidem,15. 226 Ibidem, 23. 227 Ibidem, 19.

using her isolation as an argument for her refusal from the canonised narratives. Fant verifies the image of an isolating personality by many descriptions about the artist found in the exhibition catalogue. In one of the examples, Fant writes:

She was regarded as being a bit odd and had almost no social life. In particular, she never met any men. She was always dressed in black, was thin and straight as a ramrod. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun. Children were not afraid of her and thought her kind and cheerful.228

The twofold image of an artist as an isolated but independent is presented in the interview quote from Erik af Klint:

Hilma af Klint was a slender little woman with a high bearing and lively movements. --- Independent, dignified, and strong-willed, she walked her charted path through life with an assured gait. There was the contrary, she was solid and well-balanced. Her way of life was ascetic, and she was a vegetarian. She made very great demands on herself, conscious of the fact that she bore with her powerful spiritual forces, which shaped her life and suited her to higher tasks. She herself said of this, “I am so small, I am so insignificant, but within me gushes a kind of force that has to go forward”. 229

This quote presented by Erik af Klint was later many times quoted in the reviews analysed, and it has converted one of the most used quotes of the artist. Also, the personal secretary of af Klint, Olof Sundström presented the twofold image of af Klint: “Dry humour and humanly simple way of life, modesty, courage – yes she was a rare personality, who through her extremely humble demeanour radiated a sublimity and a power vert seldom encountered.”230

The other example is the tone of indicated passiveness which is shown in the presentation of af Klint’s artistic practice. For instance, with the relationship with spirits, Fant presents af Klint indeed as a follower: “She had to promise to devote a year’s work to Amaliel to carry out his wishes: she had to also promise to refrain from her ordinary painting. The paintings she was to do were called drawings to the temple.”231 Although af Klint’s technique of work has been agreed to be spiritual, following her inner voice which af Klint believed to come from the spirits, Fant’s gendered wording contradictorily indicated af Klint to receive the messages outside of her rather than following her own creativity. Similar indications to passivity are shown in the discussion about the relationship with Rudolf Steiner:

228 Ibidem, 26 229 Ibidem, 27 230 Ibidem, 27 231 Ibidem, 24

He pointed out that their contemporaries were not capable of understanding the paintings but that this would be possible in fifty years’ time. Rudolf Steiner’s vague comments were presumably a disappointment to Hilma af Klint who had undoubtedly expected very clear, profound interpretations.232

In the article for Taide, Fant declares how this refusal of Steiner could have been the reason why Hilma af Klint was depressed about the paintings and did not show them to anyone.233 A more subtle mention of the passivity of af Klint’s is, where Fant says that due to not understanding her own symbols, af Klint asked the interpretation of Steiner.234 This gendered interpretation presented by Fant could have had truths in af Klint’s own gender performance. As a woman of fin-de-siecle, she probably performed her gender by quietness and leaning on the masculine authorities. However, Fant does not profoundly ask the reasons for af Klint’s performance; instead, he is verifying these gendered characterizations.

To conclude, Fant indeed declared af Klint to be an independent forerunner, and his admiration on af Klint’s oeuvre and artistic practice is evident. He presented the discovery of af Klint’s oeuvre as a groundbreaking finding and placed the researchers of the artists as the position of a forerunner. At the same time, his gendered word choices framed the artist as passive and isolated, receiving indications from masculine authorities (e.g. the spirit Amaliel or Rudolph Steiner). It could be interpreted that af Klint’s gender performance followed the feminine ideals of her contemporary society, making her a follower of masculine authorities and isolate herself. On the other hand, Fant’s gendered interpretation of af Klint must be considered, and hence these gendered acts of af Klint are even highlighted in Fant’s texts. This characterization of a passive artist presented by Fant culminated later in the articles, where many reviewers forgot to understand af Klint’s paintings as her own creations. Thus, I argue, that Fant’s twofold, gendered interpretation of af Klint was in the central role creating an image of an artist, who was seen more as a mediator than a creator.

232 Ibidem, 26. 233 Åke Fant, ”Hilma af Klintin maalauksista”, Taide. Vol. 3. 1988, 35. 234 Ibidem, 35.

Figure 5. NORDSTJERNAN: “Gustaf af Klint, Caroline Christna Strand admire and try to understand the paintings of Hilma af Klint” By courtesy of Nordstjernan.com

4.2. “A footnote in Swedish art history” – The refusal of inclusion in the late 1980s

This chapter aims to analyse the reception of Hilma af Klint’s oeuvre after the exhibition tour Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint. The analysis concentrates on the displays, which were held in Helsinki in August 1988 and New York in January 1989. I discuss how af Klint’s gender affected the reception of her oeuvre, and which were the main discursive differences compared to the exhibition tour The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting held between 1986 and 1987. I hypothesize that Åke Fant has been one of the most influential agents in the discursive field of af Klint and that the influence of him is visible in these review articles analysed.

As a material, the analysis uses ten reviews, which are taken from specialized publications and the most significant newspapers of Finland, Sweden and the United States. The articles are chosen from Helsingin Sanomat, Hufvudstadsbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, The New York Times and the Swedish American newspaper Nordstjernan-Svea. As specialized publications, I

have used articles taken from the Finnish cultural magazine Taide and the publication for the Finnish Anthroposophist Association Takoja.

This chapter is divided into three sections after discourses held in Finland, Sweden and the United States. From the Finnish discursive field, I will present the reviews written by the artist and art critic Carolus Enckell (1945-2017) for Taide, the Outside artist and art critic Erkki Pirtola (1950-2016) for Takoja, the art historian, gender studies researcher and current director of the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, Leena-Maija Rossi (b.1962), for Helsingin Sanomat and the art historian and the current rector of Malmö Art Academy Gertrud Sandqvist for Hufvudstadsbladet. Among these agents, especially Enckell and Sandqvist, joined the discursive field of Hilma af Klint in the later years. Enckell participated as an artist in the exhibition I Strömmen, curated by Sandqvist in 2013. Accordingly, Enckell was a co-writer for the group exhibition catalogue Feel the Spirit!, which displayed af Klint’s paintings at EMMA Espoo Modern Art Museum in 2014.

The Finnish field continued the discussion on the topics which were present already after The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting in 1986. Those were the debate if af Klint could be considered as a pioneer and if she is proof of the change of the art historical narrative. This question was contemplated often through af Klint’s personification as a medium.

An example of this connection between the personifications of a pioneer and a medium can be found in Erkki Pirtola’s article, “Hilma af Klint. Idän ja lännen imaginaatiot” (English: “Hilma af Klint. Imaginations of the East and West”). Pirtola primarily contemplates the spirituality in af Klint’s artistic practice and the pioneer narrative, i.e. the narrative of the creation of abstract art. He writes: “Now it can be asked, who created abstract art? Was it Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky, Malevich or Hilma’s inspirators Gregor, Clemens, Amaliel, Ananda?”235 In this quote, Pirtola contemplates the narratives about the pioneer, but at the same time, he does not compare the canonised pioneers to af Klint but instead to her spirits. This characterization of af Klint only as a mediator instead of a creator follows the stereotypical attributions of the female gender; therefore, the interpretation of af Klint’s gender performance is seen only through the gendered interpretations which passivate the image of the artist.

Carolus Enckell also discusses the narrative of pioneer. In his article, “Taiteilija roolista” (English: “About the Role of the Artist”), he mentions the question in the context of including the Nordic

235 Erkki Pirtola, ”Hilma af Klint. Idän ja lännen imaginaatiot”, Takoja. 27th November 1988, 35. Orginal quote: ”Nyt voi kysyä kuka loi abstraktionismin? Oliko se Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky Malevits, vaiko Hilman inspiraattorit Gregor, Clemens, Amaliel, Ananda?”

countries as part of the Western art world. He says: “I do not know if this question [Who is the pioneer of abstraction?] has any historical importance? But if it is seen to have, it would bring more value to this still so poor Nordic culture.”236 This sentence shows that Enckell does not directly state af Klint to be an influential artist, but on the other hand, he sees the value of the oeuvre of af Klint in the context of a narrative of the art historical canon. This so-called “half-way acceptance” was already visible in the reviews of 1986, where the excitement about the inclusion of Nordic countries in the canon was in the contradiction with the denial of af Klint as an abstract artist.

Leena-Maija Rossi’s and Gertrud Sandqvist’s articles do not concentrate on the pioneering character of af Klint. Instead, they both contemplate the feeling of wonder the paintings cause on the viewer. More profoundly, they search for the source of that feeling, what they both recognize. Rossi writes in her article “Jokainen kuva on alttari” (English: “Every Picture is an Altar”) the following:

Hilma af Klint’s paintings still confuse a contemporary viewer who is used to total abstraction. In them, it is joined in a fascinating way spontaneity and obedience, sensitivity and strength, to put oneself in a vulnerable position and to immerse oneself in the inner life, generality and unexplained, religious piety and sexuality.237

By term, “total abstraction”, Rossi means the formalist tendencies in art influenced by Greenberg. Hence, she joins the case of af Klint to the broader debate between the spiritual and the formalist. Rossi deepens the discussion about the sexual meanings in af Klint’s art by the following:

Hilma af Klint avoided connection with men, but for example, in the passionately painted Swan -series one cannot avoid seeing the sexual desire. The tension between the black and white, the heart contended by the swans, the firmly tensioned points of touch of the birds which are underlying their duality and in the end the figures which are tied around each other - the pictures cannot speak out more loudly.238

236 Carolus Enckell, “Taiteilijan roolista”, Taide, Vol. 4 1988, 5. Orginal quote: ”En tiedä onko tällaisella kysymyksen asettelulla mitään historiallista merkitystä? Mutta jos sillä katsotaan olevan sitä se toisi lisää arvoa tähän muuten niin köyhään pohjoiseen kulttuuriin.” 237 Leena-Maija Rossi, ”Jokainen kuva on alttari”, Helsingin Sanomat, 11th August 1988, 20. Orginal quote: ”Hilma af Klintin maalaukset hämmentävät edelleen myös täydelliseen esittämättömyyteen tottunutta nykykatsojaa. Niissä yhdistyvät kiehtovasti spontaanius ja kurinalaisuus, herkkyys ja voima, itsensä alttiiksi paneminen ja omaan sisimpään uppoutuminen, yleispätevyys ja selittämättömyys, uskonnollinen hartaus ja seksuaalisuus.” 238 Ibidem, 20. Orginal quote: ”Hilma af Klint vältti kanssakäymistä miesten kanssa, mutta esimerkiksi kiihkeästi maalatussa Joutsen- sarjan kuvissa ei voi olla näkemättä seksuaalista kaipuuta. Mustan ja valkoisen jännite, sydän, josta joutsenet kamppailevat, sommittelun kaksijakoisuutta korostavat, lintujen väkevästi latautuneet kosketuskohdat ja lopulta toisiinsa kietoutuneet hahmot – kuvat eivät voisi puhua selvemmin.”

Rossi’s argument follows Sixten Ringbom’s theory about the sexual source in af Klint’s art. This theory is mentioned, for example, in Ringom’s article for the catalogue The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986). As the quote above shows, Rossi connects the sexual interpretation of the paintings with the isolated character of af Klint. She verifies the character of a humble, isolating artist with the quote by af Klint, taken from the catalogue Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint: “I am so small, I am so insignificant, but within me gushes a kind of force that has to go forward.”239

This quote of af Klint is the most used in the review articles analysed from 1988. Also, Swedish reviewers Märta Holkers and Peter Cornell use the same quote to pinpoint the humbleness of the artist but at the same time the contradiction, of her independence. Indeed, the quote shows the two sides af Klint’s assumed character. However, I argue that the gendered attributions such as humbleness, isolation and kindness are pinpointed and strengthened through the writings of Fant and even more in the analysed reviews.

In the same way, Gertrud Sandqvist concentrates on the feelings the paintings arise in the viewer. However, she writes in her article for Hufvudstadsbladet, “Målningar till templet” (English: ”Paintings for the Temple”) from the point of view of the religious source.

What is it in them that fascinates? How was she powerful enough to make those images? Maybe because Hilma Af Klint was entirely obedient as an artist. She was a Vestal, a faithful servant to the spiritual powers which for her were reality.240

Sandqvist thus underlies the fact that af Klint took the spiritual as her home in the artistic practice instead of analysing the spiritual with reason. Sandqvist’s contemplation continues: “But her way of to answer to Amaliel resemble the Virgin Maria with the annunciation. “See, I am the Lord’s servant”. In a catholic country, Hilma af Klint might have been a nun. Bride of Christ.”241 This shows Sansqvist’s point of view on the religious side of af Klint. She does not define af Klint’s occult practices as something undefined spiritual, but as something that emerges from Christian philosophy. This differs from the narratives and reviews written in contact with the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (2013) when the Christian authority has been put in the minor position.

239 Rossi, ”Jokainen kuva on alttari”, 20. See also Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 18. 240 Gertrud Sandqvist, ”Målningar till Templet”, 5. Orginal quote: ”Vad är det i dem som fascinerar? Hur var hon mäktig att göra sådana bilder? Kanske därför att Hilma af Klint var gullkomligt lydig som konstnär. Hon var en vestal, en trogen tjänarinna till de andliga krafter som för henne var verklighet.” 241 Ibidem, 5. Orginal quote: ”Men hennes sätt att svara Amaliel påminner om Jungfru Marias vid bebådelsen. "Se jag är Herrens tjänarinna." I ett katolskt land skulle Hilma af Klint kanske varit nunna. Kristi brud.”

To summarize, in both Sandqvist’s and Rossi’s articles, the authors intended to seek the source for the feelings of astonishment the paintings cause in the viewers. While Sandqvist sees the source to be highly spiritual and Christian, Rossi understands the mesmerising feelings in paintings as sexual. At the same time, Rossi contemplates on the contradiction of the sexual desires and the isolation of the artist. Accordingly, in Encell’s and Pirtola’s articles, the debate about the pioneer is discussed; hence the debate was discussed through af Klint’s personification as a medium. Also, Pirtola’s concentration on the narrative of the medium makes him ignore af Klint’s central role as a creator. Pirtola’s perspective indicates the gendered interpretations of a woman artist, where she is seen as a passive follower instead of an active creator.

From the Swedish discursive field, I will analyse the reviews of the artist and art critic Peter Cornell for Expressen, the journalist Märta Holkers (b.1946) for Svenska Dagbladet, the art critic and journalist Birgitta Rubin (b.1960) for Dagens Nyheter and the author and art critic Torsten Ekbom (1938-2014) for Dagens Nyheter. Peter Cornell and Birgitta Rubin joined the discursive field of af Klint in the 1980s as long-term authors, and they have both written various articles about af Klint’s displays among the years. Cornell’s articles are also analysed in chapters three and five.

The debate about a narrative of a pioneer continued more broadly in the Swedish articles. In his article “Andarna förde penseln” (English: “Spirits Trough the Paintbrush”), Cornell continues to deny the pioneering role of af Klint and her significance in art historical discourse, as he already did in the article of 1986. He writes in the text: “She is not [an artist], but she is an embryo for a significant one.”242 Cornell argues this by the difference of the artistic practices of the canonized artists, Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. Moreover, Cornell contemplates on the practice of af Klint as following:

Walking through her bizarre universe, one can speculate on the function of spiritism in her art. Only some years earlier Ernst Josephson executed a series of spiritual drawings and communications with spirits which broke radically against his earlier realism. In the same way, spiritism was a tool which helped Hilma af Klint to take a step from the figurative form to abstraction.243

242 Peter Cornell, ”Andarda förde penseln” Expressen, 5th September 1988, 5. 243 Ibidem, 5. Orginal quote: ”Under promenaden genom hennes märkliga universum kan man spekulera över spiritismens funktion i hennes konst. Bara några år tidigare Ernst Josephson utfört en serie spirantiska teckningar och andeprotokoll som bröt radikal mot hans tidigare realism. På samma sätt blir spiritismen det redskap som hjälper Hilma af Klint att ta det djärva steget fram figuration till abstraktion.”

Although Cornell does not mention the mental illness of Josephson, he uses the comparison to question the mental health of af Klint. Hence Cornell sees the relationship of af Klint to the spiritual and her artistic practice as a reason to deny her inclusion in the art historical canon. However, Cornell admits the value of af Klint to the Swedish art field. He concludes his article by saying: “Hilma af Klint does not maybe deserve a place among the pioneers, but rather to be a footnote in Modernism’s history of ideas, and there is not many of those, who have us spoiled as that in the Swedish art history.”244 Thus, by this quote, Cornell shows the similar rhetoric of the half-way acceptance, where af Klint is understood as something exceptional, but her pioneering character is still not acknowledged.

Birgitta Rubin writes in her article “En ovanlig konstnärinna: Andarna gjorde henne till en föregångare” (English: “An Unusual Artist: Spirits Made Her a Pioneer”), the argument for the exclusion by quoting Fant:

Actually, it is a failure to call Hilma ground-breaking because she never exhibited her painting, and no one got to see it. In complete isolation, she painted abstract paintings from the same sources as Kandinsky and Mondrian but earlier than them”, says art historian Åke Fant who has researched Hilma af Klint for seven years.245

Rubin’s quote shows the influence of Fant in the discursive field around af Klint. Also, the isolated character is used as an argument in order not to understand af Klint as part of the art history, which moreover – what is contradictory – comes from Fant. Rubin also discusses in her article the incident about the offer of the paintings to Moderna Museet in the 1960s: “In those times some Swedish museum men were invited to exhibit Hilma af Klint’s revolutionary production, but they thought that she had plagiarised Kandinsky, even though she was ahead of time.”246 This created and verified the narrative of the defenders of af Klint in the 1980s and the right timing, which was already formulated in Fant’s texts.

244 Ibidem, 5. Orginal quote: ”Hilma af Klint förtjänar kanske inte en plats bland pionjärerna men väl en fotnot i modernismens idéhistoria och så värst många sådana är vi inte bortskämda med i svensk konsthistoria.” 245 Birgitta Rubin, ”En ovanlig konstnärinna. ”Andarna” gjorde henne till föregångare”, 3. Orginal quote: ”Egentligen är det fel att kalla Hilma banbrytande, eftersom hon aldrig ställde ut sitt måleri och ingen fick se det. Helt isolerat målade hon abstrakta bilder utifrån samma kallor som Kandinsky och Mondrian men tidigare än dem”, menar konstvetaren Åke Fant, som forskat om Hilma af Klint sju år.” 246 Ibidem, 3. Orginal quote: ”Däremellan erbjöds flera svenska museimän att ställa ut Hilma af Klints revolutionäre produktion men de tyckte att hon plagierade Kandinsky, trots att hon låg före tiden”.

Thus, like Cornell, Rubin writes about the value of the paintings, but at the same time, af Klint is not fully seen as equal to her masculine colleagues. This debate about her pioneering character and its relation to the gendered expressions are also visible in Rubin’s text where she at the same time admires af Klint as a forerunner: “Recently there was a sensation in the art world. The history of abstract art got to be rewritten - all by reason of a slender little lady from Stockholm, always dressed in black, upright and with bright blue eyes.”247

Similarly, Holkers in her article, “Hemligstämpeln lyftes 20 år efter hennes död” (English: “Secret pictures are raised 20 years after her death”) uses the gendered expression along with the text. One example comes from the interview of the wife of the artist’s nephew, Ulla af Klint:

‘She was totally normal”, tells the admiral's lady Ulla af Klint, who often had her husband Erik’s aunt in their home for dinner. “She could be dominant but never difficult in any way. She was interested in children and was vegetarian for religious reasons.’ 248

In Holker’s quote, the same twofold image of the artist is visible. The gendered expressions such as “not to be difficult”, are joined with the strong-willing character of af Klint. In another quote, Hölkers shows more this character of independency: “Aunt Hilma was a strong woman who knew what she wanted, tells her nephew, director Börje af Klint.” 249

Holkers’ and Rubin’s twofold expressions show the widespread gendered speaking in the discursive field around Hilma af Klint. These expressions follow Fant’s division of the character in the isolated and independent. Again, I argue that even though af Klint was described as an independent forerunner, these gendered expressions passivated the character of an artist; hence her gender was affecting her acceptance in the art historical canon.

In Torsten Ekbom’s article, “En föregångare i hemlighet” (English: “A Pioneer in Secret”), Fant’s influence is also visible. Ekbom mentions the trustworthiness and objectivity of the catalogue written by Fant, which shows that Fant’s aim to present himself as an objective researcher was

247 Ibidem, 3. Orginal quote: ”Nyligen träffade i sensation i konstvärlden. Den abstrakta konstens historia fick skriva om - allt beroende på en spenslig liten dam från Stockholm, alltid svartklädd, rakryggad och med klarblå blick.” 248 Marta Hölkers, ”Helmligstämpeln lyftes 20 år efter hennes död”, Svenska Dagbladet, 7th August 1988, 19. Orginal quote: “Hon var helt normal, försäkrar admiralinnan Ulla af Klint som ofta hade sin make Eriks faster hemma på middag. Hilma kunde vara dominant men aldrig konstig på något vis. Hon intresserade sig för barnen och var vegetarian av religiösa skäl.” 249Ibidem, 19. Orginal quote: “Faster Hilma var en rejäl kvinna som visste vad hon ville, berättar et av hennes brorbarn, direktör Börje af Klint.”

acknowledged.250 Ekbom promotes the inclusion of af Klint in the art historical narrative more strongly than other reviewers. When discussing Swan No. 17. (Figure 1.), he states: “It could be taken right away to the honoured place at Moderna Museet, with other religious seekers such as Yves Klein and Harnett Newsman.”251 Moreover, Ekbom joins the case of Hilma af Klint to the broader discussion about the break of the traditional art historical narrative:

Hilma af Klint (1986-1944) was still at the beginning of the 1980s, so unknown that the conscientious Lea Vergine did not include her in the noteworthy exhibition “The Other Half of Avant-Garde 1910- 1940”, which documented a great selection of forgotten women artists in Modernism. --- It is time to write a whole new chapter in Swedish art history, a very significant addition to the history of modernist achievements in Sweden.252

Ekbom’s perspective shows the understanding of the relativity of the art historical narrative; thus, he follows the argument placed by Tuchman in The Spiritual in Art -Abstract Painting 1890-1985 and the poststructuralist tendencies in the art discourse, which questioned the position of the traditional art historical canon.

Lastly, I will shortly discuss the discourse held in the United States and the articles of the art history lecturer Roberta Smith (b.1942) and the journalist for Nordstjernan-Svea, Alvalene P. Karlsson. Smith joined the discursive field of Hilma af Klint again in 2018 when the exhibition Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future (2018) opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then, she has written various articles about af Klint’s displays.

In her article in 1989, “Review/art; Hilma af Klint, Explorer in the Realm of the Abstract”, Smith understands the significance of af Klint as a breaker of the art historical narrative. However, like Cornell, she states: “Her achievement may never be anything more than a footnote to the twentieth- century art history, but if so, it will be a long and fascinating one that touches on many other artists' activities.”253 Smith continues admitting that af Klint’s case “shows how little we know about the

250 Torsten Ekbom, ”En förengångare i hemlighet”, Dagens Nyheter, 26th August 1988, 4. 251 Ibidem, 4. Orginal quote: ”Den kunde omedelbart inta en hedersplats på Moderna museet mellan andra religiösa sökare som Yves Klein och Harnett Newsman”. 252 Ibidem, 4. Orginal quote: ”Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) var ännu i början av 1980-talet så okänd att den samvetsgranna Lea Vergine inte fick med henne i den uppmärksammade utställningen ”Andra hälften av Avant-Gardet 1910-1940” som dokumenterade i långa råden av förbisedda kvinnliga konstnärer i modernismen. – Det är dags att skriva ett helt nytt kapitel i svensk konsthistoria, ett mycket märkligt tillägg till den hittills kända historien om det modernistiska genombrottet i Sverige. ” 253 Roberta Smith, “Review/art; Hilma af Klint. Explorer in the Realm of the Abstract”, The New York Times, 3rd February 1989, 26.

early abstract art. and its sources; likewise, how unnecessarily narrow is the history constructed around it.”254 This quote uses the same rhetoric of the half-way acceptance where af Klint is not fully acknowledged, but her significance as an example, which shows the faults in art historical canon, is verified.

Alvalene Karlsson concentrates on the mesmerizing feelings the paintings cause in the viewer. In her article, “Secret” Paintings Revealed by Swedish Hilma af Klint” this mesmerising feeling is joined to the attributions of mysticism:

It would have been almost impossible for her contemporaries to understand the metamorphosis in her personality as well as in her paintings, and it was undoubtedly for this reason that the works were kept in secret from the outer world.255

Thus, Karlsson sees the paintings as something, which is too complicated to understand. For the image on the front page of the newspaper (Figure 5.), Karlsson writes: “Gustaf af Klint, Caroline and Christina Strand admire and try to understand the works of Hilma af Klint.”.256 Thus, the paintings are admirable, but they hide behind meanings which are hard or impossible to understand. This narrative of mysticism she links to the narrative of discovery and denial of the artist in her time: “Before her death, she tried to find a place for her paintings but was met with a lack of comprehension or inability to cope with what she considered to be a gift to humanity.”257 This brought back to the narrative established by Fant that af Klint’s paintings were impossible to understand in her time, and the work of the researchers in the 1980s put them into acknowledgement.

In the American discourse, the spiritualist tendencies were not widely discussed, but instead, af Klint was seen as an example, which questioned the traditional narrative of art history. Smith’s perspective followed the Swedish tendencies in half-way acceptance, verifying the importance of the artist but still denying her inclusion into the art historical canon. In Karlsson’s article, the same concentration on the feelings of wonder and the search of their source is considered, as in Rossi’s and Sandqvist’s reviews. However, the source for these feelings are not searched from the spiritual perspective, but rather, they were hidden in the veil of mysticism and the claim that the paintings are too complicated to be understood.

254 Ibidem, 26. 255 Alvelene P. Karlsson, “Secret” Paintings Revealed by Swedish Hilma af Klint”, Nordstjernan-Svea, 19th January 1989, 13. 256 Ibidem, 7. 257 Ibidem, 13.

To conclude, the discourse in 1988 and 1989 followed roughly the same narratives than in 1986. The discursive field in the United States still was not discussing the artist profoundly, but the Nordic discourse started to ask particular questions in artistry and character of af Klint. Like in 1986, af Klint’s position as a breaker of the art historical canon was acknowledged, but her inclusion in it as such was hardly agreed. However, as a difference, the description of her character was deepened by Fant, and hence this characterization reflected on the reviews in twofold characterizations, where the gendered picture of an artist as an isolating and quiet woman was joined to her description as an independent forerunner. In other words, it could be said that Fant, as an agent, was one of the most influential figures in the development of the discursive field around af Klint. On the other hand, in the Finnish discourse, the feelings of wonder what the paintings rose in viewer were discussed more profoundly than before and the explanations for that feeling where searched in the spiritual practice or in the sexual desire of af Klint.

I argue that the question, why af Klint was not entirely accepted or raised in international fame, could be partially answered through the theory of gender performance and af Klint’s gendered characterization. During her lifetime, af Klint indeed performed her gender meeting the expectations of a woman in fin-de-siècle: kind, humble and isolating. However, this gendered performance was pinpointed in the reviews of the 1980s, where these attributions mentioned were misinterpreted and at the end, passivated the artist’s character, denying her the role of a creator. Hence, it could be said that the detailed, objective-meant characterisation presented by Fant, in the end, turned against Hilma af Klint.

5. A NEW APPROACH – MODERNA MUSEET

Moderna Museet Stockholm opened a new retrospective exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, on 16th of February 2013. This display gained both international and national attention immediately among the press, public and other cultural institutions. It toured during the years 2013 and 2015 in five different institutions in Europe: Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (June - October 2013), Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain (October 2013 - February 2014), Lousiana, Humlebaek, Denmark (March - July 2014), Helsinki Kunsthall (August - September 2014),

KUMU Art Museum, Tallin (March – June 2015) and Heine Onstad Kunstcentre, Oslo (October 2015 – January 2016). In this chapter, as Moderna Museet has two institutions, located in Stockholm and Malmö, with Moderna Museet, I mean the museum located in Stockholm unless otherwise stated.

This chapter discusses and analyses the display Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, including the reasons for its execution and its effects in the view about af Klint, which is analysed through the reception of the tour. The first section is dedicated to the execution of the exhibition as well as the agents, who were involved actively in the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. Section 5.1 discusses the aims of the exhibition. Section 5.2 analyses the critical reviews and reception about Hilma af Klint during the tour Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. As a material, I use the catalogue Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, the archival material provided by Moderna Museet, including email exchange between the agents of the Moderna Museet and other art institutions, some floor plans, and the contract made between the Moderna Museet and the Hilma af Klint Foundation in May 2012. The additional source will be the conversation I had with the curator of the exhibition, Iris Müller- Westermann by a videocall on the 17th of July 2020.

As said above, the exhibition was curated by the then-senior curator of Moderna Museet, Iris Müller- Westermann, assisted by the assistant curator Jo Widoff. Müller-Westermann is a German-born art historian, who has had a long career in Moderna Museet between 1997 and 2017. In 2017, she took over a position of a director in Moderna Museet Malmö. Based on the provided material, the role of Müller-Westermann has been essentially crucial in both curating and initiation of the exhibition, as it will be shown later in the chapter. Moreover, I argue that the writings of the former director of Moderna Museet, Daniel Birnbaum have moulded both the image of the exhibition and Hilma af Klint. Birnbaum was the director of the museum between 2010 and 2018. During and after the exhibition at Moderna Museet, Birnbaum wrote articles in publications such as Dagens Nyheter and Artforum, which are considered in this chapter. However, in the middle of 2010s, he also co-authored various catalogues and monographs regarding the life and artistry of af Klint, which in this dissertation are considered as background material, but in this chapter not analysed in-depth as they all have been published after the tour Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction.

During the video call, Müller-Westermann details that her interest towards Hilma af Klint arose during the early 2000s. One of the pinpointed events was the exhibition The Alpine Cathedral and The City- Crown, Josiah McElheny (2007), executed in Moderna Museet through the purchase of one McElheny’s sculpture installations, carrying the same title. In the display, the sculpture of McElheny was presented together with some of the art pieces from Moderna Museet’s early Modernist

collection, including works of Vladimir Tatlin, Kazimir Malevich and Hilma af Klint.258 Müller- Westermann says that the exhibition of McElheny was a personal boost to her to begin a more intensive investigation about Hilma af Klint. She explains that her initiation point was to understand the connection between af Klint’s figurative paintings and abstract work. During our conversation, she explains:

From then on [The Alpine Cathedral and The City-Crown, Josiah McElheny (2007)], my questions on Hilma af Klint’s work increased and led to the wish to curate a retrospective of her work. I wanted, among other things, to understand how her early work connected to the artist who later did The Paintings for the Temple. I was early in contact with the Hilma af Klint Foundation. It was under Lars Nittve’s directorship that in 2009 or 2010 the decision was taken to show Hilma af Klint at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. So since then, I started working on the project.259

As shown, the director of Moderna Museet, Lars Nittve (b.1953), agreed to initiate the project. Nittve has been an agent in the field around af Klint, who has been in close contact in regard to three exhibitions. During the exhibition, Hilma af Klint - Occult Painter and Abstract Pioneer in 1989, Nittve worked as a senior curator at Moderna Museet and was also in contact with Jaukkuri during the initiation of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988. However, the display organized in 1989 was not the first time Moderna Museet was in contact with the oeuvre of the Foundation. First, the paintings were offered to the museum in the 1960s, by Erik af Klint. One of the first mentions about this was written in the catalogue of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, but then Fant did not mention the name of the institution but instead spoke about “a public institution.”260 The catalogue of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction hardly mentions this event of the 1960s, but it is later written in some reviews, e.g. in the article of Elisabeth Andersson “Hilma af Klint i limbo” (English: Hilma af Klint in Limbo”), where another incident of refusal of af Klint’s oeuvre is discussed.261

In 2010 Nittve retired and Daniel Birnbaum took over the role as a director of the museum. In the article for Artforum, “Universal Pictures: The Art of Hilma af Klint”, Birnbaum describes his first encounter with af Klint’s paintings, which occurred in 2005 at the exhibition 3 x Abstraction: New

258 Iris Müller-Westermann in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. See also “The Alpine Cathedral and the City Crown”, Moderna Museet, last visited 11th august 2020: https://www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/exhibitions/the-1st-at-moderna-josiah-mcelheny/more-about-the- exhibition/. 259 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 260 Fant, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 27. 261 Elisabeth Andersson, “Hilma af Klint i limbo”, Svenska Dagbladet, 21st February 2013, 4.

Methods of Drawing by Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, and Agnes Martin in the Drawing Centre of New York.262

The first discussion between Moderna Museet and the Hilma af Klint Foundation about the new retrospective exhibition began with the contact with the head of the board of the Foundation Gustaf af Klint, who also took part in the display of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint in 1988. The idea of the new retrospective exhibition was proposed to the Foundation at the end of the 2000s. By the report of Müller-Westermann, trough this proposal, Gustaf af Klint told about the unpacked paintings, which had been stored without any examination since the death of the artist.263 Moderna Museet decided to take these unpacked paintings under examination, and the research of these discovered paintings is mentioned various times both in the catalogue and articles about the exhibition.264 Although the importance of them and the research executed is undeniable, in the provided material, the precise names of the discovered artworks are not detailed. Nevertheless, these unpacked paintings formed the rhetoric of “discovery”, which I will detail in depth in section 5.1.

As said, the contact with the Foundation started the extensive research of Hilma af Klint’s oeuvre, which included the cataloguing, conservation and photography of the most significant artworks and 26 000 pages of notebooks.265 The work of Moderna Museet shows the high cultural capital of the institution, as the research in these extends, would not have been possible by a smaller art venue.

Soon after the initiation of the exhibition project, Gustaf af Klint passed away and his brother, Johan took over the directorship of the Foundation.266 The contract between the Foundation and Moderna Museet was signed on the 30th of May 2012 between Johan af Klint and Daniel Birnbaum. The contract details, that Moderna Museet guaranteed to digitalize the notebooks and the most significant paintings, as well as to create software for cataloguing the artworks.267 Accordingly, the Foundation provided the use of the artworks to the museum for the upcoming tour between 2013 and 2015. This contained the use of artworks on marketing and souvenir purposes, such as the sale of postal cards, without any additional compensation.268 Based on this information, the relationship was more collaborative rather than based on compensations.

262 Daniel Birnbaum, “Universal Pictures: The Art of Hilma af Klint”, Artforum, January 2013, https://www.artforum.com/print/201301/universal-pictures-the-art-of-hilma-af-klint-38217. 263 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 264 Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 33. See also Birnbaum, “Universal Pictures: The Art of Hilma af Klint”. 265 Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 33. 266 Ibidem. 267 Contract between Moderna Museet and the Hilma af Klint Foundation, 30th May 2012, Archives of Moderna Museet. 268 Ibidem.

By the report of Müller-Westermann, the tour was not planned but was instead a result of various opportunities and events.269 I argue that as Moderna Museet is an established institution, which already enjoys a reputation as one of the most significant cultural institutions in Sweden, the contact with the touring institutions initiated differently than, e.g. in 1988, when Maaretta Jaukkuri from the Nordic Arts Centre, had active contact with art institutions around Europe. Accordingly, already two years before the opening in 2011, some institutions contacted with either Birnbaum or Müller- Westermann, with interest to take part in the project. Some of these institutions were the Museo Picasso Málaga and the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Germany.270

Müller-Westermann states that her interest towards Museo Picasso Málaga initiated by reason of willing to connect Pablo Picasso and Hilma af Klint, as in Spanish and Western artistic field, Picasso is known as a canonized male artist of Avant-Garde.271 Picasso represents an artist, who could be compared easily to Kandinsky or Mondrian and his name has many times involved in the debates about “pioneers of abstraction”.272 This is the reason why the comparison between af Klint and Picasso was relevant.

The reason for the early contact between the institution could be that the exhibition plans were already discussed in public at the early stage. This public discussion is mentioned in the letter from the director of Staatliches Museum Schwerin Dirk Blübaum to Müller-Westermann. Blübaum details he learned about the “new discovery” of the artist in a German radio show, where Müller-Westermann was interviewed.273 From these two institutions, only Museo Picasso Málaga ended up having collaboration in the display. The reason why the Staatliches Museum Schwerin was left out from the tour is not discussed in the given archival material. However, the placement of the exhibition in the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin covered the German area for the display.

The artistic director of Museo Picasso de Málaga, José Lebrero Stals sent a message to Birnbaum on the 21st of September 2011 requesting cooperation.274 Müller-Westermann replies to this email on the same day, showing her interest in the request.275 According to the provided archival material, the next

269 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 270 Email from José Lebrero Stals (Museo Picasso Málaga) to Daniel Birnbaum, 21st of September 2011, Archives of Moderna Museet. Letter from Dirk Blübaum (Staatliches Museum Schwerin) to Iris Müller-Westermann, 7th of June 2011, Archives of Moderna Museet. 271 Iris Müller-Westermann in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 272 e.g. Pirtola, “Hilma af Klint. Idän ja lännen imaginaatiot”, 35. The comparison by Pirtola is discussed in detail in chapter 4.2. 273 Letter from Dirk Blübaum to Iris Müller-Westermann, 7th June 2011, Archives of Moderna Museet. 274 Email from José Lebrero Stals to Daniel Birnbaum, 21st September 2011, Archives of Moderna Museet. 275 Email from Iris Müller-Westermann to José Lebrero Stals, 21st of September 2011, Archives of Moderna Museet.

email exchange is unknown, but on the 12th of March 2012, Lebrero Stals writes asking about the confirmation of the cooperation.276 On the same day, Müller-Westermann contacts to Museo Picasso Málaga confirming the continuation of the collaboration.277 With this email exchange, it could be shown that Lebrero Stalst’s and Blübaum’s initiative contact to Moderna Museet indicated a certain habitus of the Swedish museum in the international and European art field, where the collaboration with Moderna Museet was seen as an achievement as such.

On the other hand, Moderna Museet made an initiative broadening the discursive field around Hilma af Klint by inviting the cultural professionals to collaborate around the case of af Klint. On the date of the exhibition opening, only Museo Picasso Málaga and Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin were confirmed as the touring institutions. However, on the opening weekend, Moderna Museet organized a symposium for international art professionals, which made an initiative to the new collaborations.278 The guest list of the symposium contains a wide selection of prominent figures of the Western art world, including figures of the press, e.g. from Artforum, El País, Frieze, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet; academy, e.g. from, University of Amsterdam, Columbia University, New York, Stockholm University, University College London and University of Vienna and Sorbonne University, Paris, and art institutions and museums, e.g. the Washington National Gallery, Heine Onstad Kunstcentre Lousiana Museum of Modern Art and MUSAC León, Spain.279

Moreover, Moderna Museet invited the prominent figures who had already engaged in the research or promotion of af Klint. These were the artist Rebecca H. Quaytman, who curated the Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint together with Åke Fant in PS1 in 1989, and Maurice Tuchman, who curated the Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 in 1986. Moreover, the art critic Birgitta Rubin was invited. She wrote a review in 1988 about the exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, which is analysed in chapter four.280

The quest list shows the wide range of the prominent figures, whom all possessed a high cultural capital. This raised the discussion about Hilma af Klint into a new level, where the most prominent professionals contemplated and discussed on the artist, who was still regularly unknown in the international art field. Müller-Westermann discusses the event in the following way: “I think it was helpful that we did a symposium, where many art historians, religion historians etcetera from different

276 Email from José Lebrero Stals to Iris Müller-Westermann, 12th March, 2012, Archives of Moderna Museet. 277 Email from Iris Müller-Westermann to José Lebrero Stals 12th March 2012, Archives of Moderna Museet. 278 Fact Sheet, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, Moderna Museet, Archives of Moderna Museet. 279 List of Participants, the 15th - 16th of February 2013 at Moderna Museet and Engelberg Manor, Archives of Moderna Museet. 280 Ibidem.

countries - United States, Germany, France...- were invited to discuss af Klint’s work and how it could be understood.”281 Thus, it could be argued that the symposium at the opening weekend was one of the crucial events in raising Hilma af Klint into broader knowledge among the professionals possessing high cultural capital, who by their part, continued widening the discursive field. These were both institutions cooperating in the tour, such as Heine Onstad Kunscentre and Lousiana Museum of Modern Art as well as the authors of the reviews. Many academics and journalists involved in the symposium wrote later about the exhibition, e.g. the art historian Briony Fer from London University College, who published her article in The Frieze, the journalist and researcher Julia Voss for Tate etc., and journalist and editor Natalia Rachlin, writing an article for the New York Times. All these three articles I will discuss further in section 5.2.

The exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, was the most visited in the history of Moderna Museet.282 The same feeling of wonder, which was documented in chapter four in the articles of Sandqvist and Rossi, also rose among the professionals and visitors in Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. Due to this feeling, some professionals contacted to Moderna Museet, after the opening with a wish to collaborate. The chain of events was thus similar than in 1988 when the institutions contacted to the Nordic Arts Centre after the opening, with a feeling of wonder about the paintings. One of the most important events was probably the participation of the curator of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York, Tracey Baskhoff, and her contact to Iris Müller-Westermann after the opening weekend:

I can’t stop talking about my visit to Stockholm. What a treat it was to spend time with beautiful objects, large ideas and interesting colleagues - as well as the amazing food, music, and settings. many thanks for including me in such an inspiring weekend. ---Since my return, I have spoken with Nancy and Richard. Unfortunately, our 2014 calendar will not accommodate Hilma, but we are still very interested in the presentation in 2015.283

However, the display in Guggenheim New York was not organised until after five years of the display in Moderna Museet.284 In 2018, Hilma af Klint - Paintings for the Future curated by Baskhoff, opened its doors. It was the most visited exhibition of Guggenheim’s history.285 Although Hilma af Klint was displayed already in the United States two times: Los Angeles in 1986 and New York in 1988, these

281 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 282 Ibidem. 283 Email from Tracey Bashkoff to Iris Müller-Westermann, 24th of March 2013, Archives of Moderna Museet. 284 Iris Müller-Westermann in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020. 285“Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future Most-Visited Exhibition in Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s History”, Press Releases, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, last visited 19th August 2020: https://www.guggenheim.org/press- release/hilma-af-klint-paintings-for-the-future-most-visited-exhibition-in-solomon-r-guggenheim-museums-history

exhibitions did not receive similar attention, due to still dominating Greenbergian perspectives. Thus, the display in Guggenheim started a new chapter in widening the discursive field of Hilma af Klint to the United States of America, which celebrated and acknowledged an artist who was earlier seen as a marginal.

To conclude, Müller-Westermann’s role in the initiation and research of the exhibition turned the narrative of af Klint into the new direction, which influenced widely the reviews written about the exhibition. The role of Moderna Museet as an appreciated institution, possessing high cultural capital provided a platform to widen the discursive field in the new levels in both in the research of the artist as well as in the general acknowledgement of her. Even though Moderna Museet received initiative requests to collaborate with this exhibition the organised events such as the symposium, created the platform to discuss the historical and artistic themes professionally, with figures whose habitus with many cultural and international connections, hence caused to the international acknowledgement of the artist. This, on its part, made the discursive field to grow and moreover created a more profound and more professional discourse about af Klint than in the 1980s. However, the narratives and themes created around the artist and the display had a crucial role in the building of the image of the artist. This, I will discuss in the next section.

5.1. A provocative pioneer – Aims and themes of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction

When I curated the 2013 Hilma af Klint exhibition, I did not have the goal to make a blockbuster or the most popular exhibition ever in Moderna Museet of a Swedish artist. Absolutely not. I was only curious. The exhibition title in 2013 was very bold. It was Hilma af Klint - A Pioneer of Abstraction. And this, of course, was a provocation, inviting a discussion about how to understand her work.286

As Müller-Westermann addresses above, the main aim of the display was to create a new interpretation in the myth on af Klint. This new interpretation contained two main aspects. The first one was linked together with the narratives of discovery, Hilma af Klint’s last will, and the role of Moderna Museet in the field around Hilma af Klint. The second one was the narrative of a strong woman painter reflected trough the position of woman artists. The myth of the will I discuss profoundly in chapter 2.1, but shortly, this narrative claims that af Klint wrote in her last will that the

286 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020.

paintings should not be shown until twenty years after her death. Later, this claim is proven untrue as such a will is not found. In 2013, this narrative of the will was used to show, that af Klint consciously knew that she was ahead of her time.287

My argument is that the overarching aim of the display was to bring Hilma af Klint to the knowledge of the broader public supported by these two narratives. This overarching aim was also stated at the project plan of the exhibition with the following: “Moderna Museet’s retrospective exhibition wants to present Hilma af Klint’s most important abstract artworks, paintings and works on paper, among them, previously not shown works. The aim is to give a deep picture of central Swedish artistic practice as well as to show strong female artistic practice.” 288

This chapter tackles the aims and themes in the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. This is carried out by the presentation and analysis of the catalogue, the exhibition leaflet, and press articles, mainly written by Iris Müller-Westermann and Daniel Birnbaum, the two main figures of the display, as well as presenting the archival material, where the aims of the exhibition are shown.

Before discussing the aims more profoundly, I will present the floor plan of the display. The exhibition contained circa 230 paintings including works throughout af Klint’s whole career, containing both figurative and spiritual paintings. The exhibition was divided into different areas, and the display was toured chronologically in clockwise. By entering, the viewer would see the area showing the samples of the series Urkaos 1906-1907, with the introductory text containing, e.g. the narratives that Hilma af Klint created her artworks before the traditional abstract pioneers Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich, as the last will.289 These two narratives were paired with the fact of her being a spiritual painter.290 The next room contained Automatic drawings (ca.1904), and the Botanical Illustrations (ca. 1890), aiming to show the twofold interest of af Klint for the spiritual and for science.291

Next, the visitors saw The Paintings for the Temple, containing, e.g. the complete series of The Ten Greatest (1907) facing with four paintings from the Eros series (1907). Also, the same hall would show two paintings from the series Large Figure Paintings (1907) and paintings from the series The

287 Daniel Birnbaum, “Foreword”, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, ed. Westermann and Widoff, 15. 288 Project Plan Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstarction, Archives of Moderna Museet. Orginal quote: “Moderna Museets retropektiva utställning vill presentera Hilma af Klints viktigaste abstrakta verk samt målningar och verk på papper, däribland många hittills aldrig visade verk. Syftet är att ge en fördjupad bild av det för Sverige centrala konstnärskapet samt att visa på ett starkt kvinnligt konstnärskap.”, 289 e.g. Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 33. See also. Exhibition leaflet, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction 16.2 - 26.5 2013. 290 Exhibition leaflet. 291 Floor Plan, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, Archives of Moderna Museet.

Seven-Pointed Stars (1908). Later, the exhibition showed the series Evolution (1908), Serie Us (1913), the Swan series (1915), the Dove series (1915) and the three Altar Paintings (1915). These series formed the body of the work of af Klint. Next, the Parsifal room contained watercolours from 1916, which af Klint created aiming to understand the meanings in her The Paintings for the Temple.292 This painting series af Klint did, as she believed the messages in creation came from the spirits. The group is followed by the presentation of The Atom series (1917), and the later paintings and studies from the 1920s and 1930s, containing studies of flowers and paintings in watercolour.293 Due to the aim to present all the oeuvre of af Klint, only The Ten Greatest and The Altar Paintings were presented as complete series. Later, the lack of presenting complete series caused some critic, which especially pointed out that this curatorial plan did not present the oeuvre in a light, where the intentions of af Klint were visible enough.

Even though the curatorial presentation caused some criticism, the exhibition intended to understand in depth the oeuvre of af Klint and her artistic processes from different angles. The main aim was to present af Klint as a forerunner or a pioneer, and this was critically different from the discourses of the 1980s. Even though Åke Fant presented af Klint as a pioneer in the 1980s, he was still hesitating to present her in the role of an active creator who equally painted her work as the male contemporary artists. Thus in the reviews of the 1980s, the discourse about af Klint was mainly dominated by the view on her as an isolated medium which was often used as an argument to deny her the role of an artist.294 As Müller-Westermann stated in the quote above, she wanted to address and problematise this old narrative with her exhibition, and that was the main reason to create a provocative title, “A Pioneer of Abstraction.” This reframing of the old narrative showed the echoes of the poststructuralist ideas, which I argue, were also in the crucial position in the acknowledgement of Hilma af Klint in the 2010s.

The exhibition was not completely denying the legacy of Fant in the research. As the floor plan showed, Müller-Westermann created a whole room addressing the fact, that Hilma af Klint tried to understand her own paintings, as Fant also declared, but the myths of the 1980s as an isolated, misunderstood, and lonely woman, were left in the shadow of the myth of a pioneer. This was a new interpretation of the gender performance of af Klint which is shown, e.g. in the way Birnbaum

292 Exhibition Leaflet. 293 Floor Plan. 294 e.g, Cornell, “Hilma, svensk ande i konsten”, 5. See also Cornell, ”Andarna fñrde penseln”, 5.

presents af Klint in the “Preface” of the catalogue. The image of af Klint as an isolated artist has changed to the image of an urban social butterfly:

Hilma af Klint belonged in the first generation of European women artists who studied at the art academies. She lived in the hustle and bustle of city life and was a successful portrait and landscape painter, winning recognition and being invited to exhibit her works together with her most celebrated peers. 295

In her article for the catalogue “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, Müller-Westermann did not use such an extreme expression as Birnbaum, but her statement was clearly addressing af Klint as a forerunning artist of her time:

Hilma af Klint was one of the few female artists of her generation who fully pursued what she believed in. --- Evidence of this can be seen not only in the radical nature of her imaginary but also in the fact that she dared to express herself in monumental formats. She was not afraid of questioning entrenched patterns of belief in her work, nor did she hesitate to walk new paths.296

The image of af Klint was also linked to the broader conversation about the position of a woman artist. Müller-Westermann writes that the general reason, why Hilma af Klint did not join to the general artistic circles of her time was probably the difficulty to be accepted as a woman in the male- dominated academic world, where women artists were mainly seen as reproducers.297 The versions of the claim of Müller-Westermann was later added to the conversation about the contemporary state of gender equality in the art world in the analysed reviews. On the other hand, Birnbaum addressed the position of a woman artist of the contemporary time in his article for Dagens Nyheter, “Hilma af Klints tid är ju nu” (English: “Hilma af Klint’s Time is Just Now”), positioning Moderna Museet in it:

The fact that we for the third year in a row organise more solo exhibitions with women artists than with men is not only an expression for ambition to correct an imbalance but just as much the will to present alternative stories about how art evolved. 298

295 Birnbaum, “Foreword”, 15 296 Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion”, 37 297 Ibidem, 38. 298 Daniel Birnbaum. “Hilma af Klints tid är ju nu”, Dagens Nyheter, 19th March 2013, 7. Orginal quote: ”Att vi för tredje året i rad organiserar något fler separatutställningar med kvinnliga konstnärer än med manliga är därför inte bara uttryck för ambitionen att rätta till en obalans utan lika mycket för viljan att presentera alternativa berättelser om hur konsten utvecklats.”

With this, Birnbaum intends to show the awareness of gender equality in Moderna Museet, but the quote still states women artist to be a marginal phenomenon in the canonised art historical narrative. The project plan shows that Moderna Museet aimed to present their work with women artists consciously: “The international tour creates a great interest for an important Swedish artist but also makes to pay attention to Moderna Museet’s work with women pioneers.”299 Therefore, the role of Moderna Museet in the discourse was addressed from the beginning. This intention to present “alternative narratives” in canon hence caused critique towards the forcing a revolutionary artist to the traditional canon, especially among the Nordic critics Malin Ullgren and Gertrud Sandqvist but also the British art historian Briony Fer criticized it. This will be discussed at a deeper level in chapter 5.2.

Moderna Museet indeed justified their role as an institution in the investigation of af Klint. As addressed before, the unpacked paintings mentioned by Gustaf af Klint and later examined by Moderna Museet, formulated the central thesis in the narrative of discovery. Müller-Westermann explained the research process in her article for the catalogue, about how a part of the oeuvre was still “rolled up in the storage and waiting up to be brought into the light of the day”. Also, Müller- Westermann details the extensive research and cataloguing process, which was made by the Museum, and in where the most crucial was the digitalization of the 26 000 pages of the notebooks. This narrative of “discovery” appears, e.g. in the text of Birnbaum for Artforum:

A large wooden crate arrives in my office at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. It looks as if it has been traveling for centuries, and it radiates mystery. This curious cargo is from the estate of Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, who, when she passed away in 1944 at the age of eighty-one, left a legacy of more than one thousand secret artworks. --- Hence the heavy wooden crate in my office, which the Hilma af Klint Foundation has brought over from a modest storage site outside Stockholm. Will we find the unknown masterpiece? Does such a traditional conceit of canonization even apply to an artist whose work seems to have invented its own language and belated reception?300

The quote of Birnbaum shows the attributions to “discovery”, which in this case, are a mystery, treasure, and secret, embodied in the crate of unpacked paintings. This narrative was paired with the myth of the last will, which was essential in creating another narrative: that the artist consciously painted for the future. About the will, Birnbaum says in the catalogue the following: “In her will she

299 Project Plan. Original quote: “En internationell turné skapar stort intresse dels för en viktig svensk konstnär men uppmärksammar också Moderna Museets arbete med kvinnliga pionjärer.” 300 Birnbaum, “Universal Pictures: The Art of Hilma af Klint”.

stipulated that her truly groundbreaking works were not to be shown until long after her death, since she was convinced that her contemporaries were not ready to understand the meaning of her work.”301 In his article “Hilma af Klints tid är ju nu”, Birnbaum presents the narrative where the myths of the last will and the discovery are joined:

She dreamed of the upcoming humanity which would be able to embrace her art. She waited for the future audience and sketched a house in the shape of a spiral where the meeting would take place. Shortly after the opening, it is evident that this will be the most internationally written exhibition in the history of Moderna Museet. Yes, Hilma af Klint’s time is now.302

These two quotes show the joint of the narratives of discovery and the will, which create a new interpretation of Hilma af Klint’s conscious intentions to paint for the future. In this interpretation, this future was seen to be the 2010s. As support, Birnbaum used the enormous popularity of the display: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction is the most visited exhibition in Moderna Museet’s history. 303 Thus the argument that Hilma af Klint’s time was in the 2010s was well-shown. This interpretation showed some similarities to Fant’s narrative, discussed in chapter four, where he argued the 1980s to be the right timing to display af Klint’s oeuvre. However, Fant never claimed that af Klint was consciously painting for future generations. This is the crucial difference when comparing these two interpretations to each other.

In the year 2020, Moderna Museet or other professionals involved in the discursive field around Hilma af Klint do not talk about the myth of the last will anymore. However, the narratives build around the last will are left in the rhetoric, when speaking about the artist and her aims. Therefore, it should be considered that many of the narratives around artists are based on the facts, which in the later stages of the investigation are proved untrue.

In conclusion, the role of Moderna Museet was crucial in raising the narrative of Hilma af Klint to the level where her artistry was discussed in connection the position of a woman artists, highlighting af Klint’s character as a pioneer. This was an updated interpretation of af Klint’s gender performance, where the actions, which supported her forerunning character, were taken in a closer inspection, playing down her characterization as an isolated person. Furthermore, Moderna Museet was aware of

301 Birnbaum, “Foreword”, 15. 302 Birnbaum, “Hilma af Klints tid är ju nu”, 7. Orginal quote: ”Hon drömde om en kommande mänsklighet som skulle kunna ta till sig hennes konst. Hon väntade på en framtida publik och skissade på ett spiralformat hus där mötet skulle äga rum. Redan kort efter vernissage är det uppenbart att detta kommer att bli den internationellt mest omskrivna utställningen i Moderna museets historia. Ja, Hilma af Klints tid är nu.” 303 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on the 17th of July 2020.

its crucial role in the creation of this new narrative, and they addressed it actively in the texts of the exhibition, connecting it to the narrative of discovery. These both narratives were clearly influenced by the poststructuralist ideas, which in the 2010s, have raised as dominating guidelines in the contemporary art-historical practice. However, Moderna Museet`s intention to highlight its active role as a defender of the alternative narratives and forerunning women artists created a critic towards this somewhat artificial preoccupation to push af Klint into the mould of the canonised history.

5.2. The critic on the canonised preoccupations – The reception of A Pioneer of Abstraction

This chapter analyses the reception of the exhibition tour Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, executed between February 2013 and January 2016. The central question is: based on the reviews, how did the discourse about Hilma af Klint change in comparison to the 1980s? As I presented in previous sections, I hypothesise that the central figures in the making of the exhibition, Iris Müller- Westermann and Daniel Birnbaum have influenced the general opinion about the artist in the 2010s. In this chapter, I reflect the central aims of the exhibition - the presentation of Hilma af Klint as a pioneer and the narrative of the discovery - with the rhetoric of the reviews.

As a material, I use eight press articles, from the central newspapers of Sweden, the United States and Finland. Those are Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Helsingin Sanomat. In the analysis of the specialized articles, I will use the articles from the Norwegian magazine Kunstkritikk and the British magazines Tate Etc., and Frieze. Although I have earlier limited my geographical area to the Nordic Countries and the United States, I see that the broadening of the international field in the case of Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction is beneficial in this analysis. The reviews written in Frieze and Tate Etc., influenced to the discursive field of English-speaking world. Moreover, the habitus and significance of the authors, the German journalist and researcher Julia Voss and the British art historian Briony Fer, have affected crucially to the discourse about the artist.

This chapter is divided into two sections: the discourse in the United States and the UK, and the discourse in Sweden and Finland. First, I will discuss the English-speaking field, which includes the articles of the freelance writer and editor Natalia Rachlin, the art historian Briony Fer, the journalist and art historian Julia Voss, and of the American art critic living in Denmark, Clemens Bomsdorf.

Voss, Fer and Rachlin participated in the symposium of the opening weekend at Moderna Museet, which significantly influenced in the broadening of the discursive field around Hilma af Klint. Later, Voss and Fer have participated in the discourse by writing in the numerous catalogues concerning af Klint. Voss’ influence in the discursive field of 2013 is shown in particular in the article of Rachlin.

About two weeks after the opening, Clemens Bomsdorf, published an article in The Wall Street Journal, with the title “Did a Mystic Swede Invent Abstract Painting?”. Bomsdorf raised the discussion linked to the exhibition of the New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925, where Hilma af Klint was excluded from the list of the displayed artists. Bomsdorf pinpoints the argument of the curator of MoMA, Leah Dickerman:

Af Klint "painted in isolation and did not exhibit her works, nor did she participate in public discussions of that time." In the exhibition, Ms. Dickerman tries to show that there wasn't just one pioneering abstract work, but several evolved around the same time and were first shown at the end of 1911. Ms. Dickerman defends her decision to exclude af Klint: "I find what she did absolutely fascinating, but I am not even sure she saw her paintings as artworks."304

Dickerman's comment shows the still-suspicious environment against af Klint in the field of the early 2010s in the United States. However, the United States was not the only cultural field which presented suspicion towards the artist. Bomsdorf continues his article by quoting the head of the Modern Art department at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt:

“But Felix Krämer, who heads the modern-art department at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, says that "it is not productive to rewrite art history every week. Art history is not a competition" where it only counts to be first. He stresses that there might have been painters working abstractly before af Klint.”305

Bombsdorf’s aim was not to present his own opinion but rather to explore the debate, which was generated around the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. He links the comments of Dickerman and Krämer to the general discussion about the position of woman in the art field by showing the argument of Müller-Westermann that "the male-dominated world of that time did deny that women could be creative, but she did create something new."306 Bomsdorf shows the same

304 Clemens Bomsdorf, “Did a Mystic Swede Invent Abstract Painting?”, The Wall Street Journal, 28th February 2013, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324338604578326243889075764. 305 Ibidem. 306 Ibidem.

poststructuralist ideas as Moderna Museet, where the old narratives are questioned, contrasting it with the older ideals of art history, emerged from Greenberg.

The exclusion of af Klint from MoMA´s display created a broad discussion in the United States. In her article, “Giving a Swedish Pioneer of Abstraction Her Due” for The New York Times, Natalia Rachlin searces for some explanation for the exclusion by interviewing the curator Maurice Tuchman, who addressed the problem of the acceptance of spiritualism. Moreover, Rachlin says the following about the interview with Tuchman:

Mr. Tuchman, speaking by telephone from New York, explained that there were several reasons af Klint’s works might sometimes be left out. “To a large degree, modern art history is made by the marketplace,” Mr. Tuchman said. “Af Klint hasn’t been out there to be seen and traded. She hasn’t been purchased by important collectors and more importantly, major museums,” he said about af Klint’s work, which is owned exclusively by a foundation.307

Rachlin and Tuchman underline that the eager to keep the oeuvre in the same place has generated the problem of exclusion. This was a new interpretation in the discourse. The reason for the exclusion of af Klint was found in the management of the paintings, rather than from the artist or the general atmosphere of fin-de-siècle. Tuchman’s reasoning could be partially explained by Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. As institutions possessing high cultural capital do not own any af Klint’s paintings in their collection, it causally affects to the acknowledgement and habitus of the artist’s oeuvre.

Rachlin aims to present af Klint as a pioneer; thus, she seeks another reason for the exclusion from the theory of Julia Voss, who contemplates the pioneering character of the Swedish artist:

“Kandinsky was actively campaigning for himself as being the first abstract artist, constantly writing his gallery and saying, ‘Hey, you know, I was the first! I painted the first abstract painting in 1911!”’ said Julia Voss, an art historian and art critic for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.”308

Rachlin’s aim was in line with the narrative presented by Moderna Museet. By quoting Voss, she raises the issue of the loud masculine voices, who are rewarded for their loudness. Voss continues the same argument in Tate Etc. where she starts her article, “The first abstract artist? (And it's not Kandinsky)” with a sentence:

307 Natalia Rachlin, “Giving a Swedish Pioneer of Abstraction Her Due” The New York Times, 29th April 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/arts/artsspecial/Giving-a-Swedish-Pioneer-of-Abstract-Art-Her-Due.html. 308 Ibidem.

When Wassily Kandinsky wrote to his New York gallerist Jerome Neumann in December 1935, he was clearly anxious to reassure him once again that he had painted his first abstract picture in 1911: ‘Indeed, it’s the world’s first ever abstract picture, because back then not one single painter was painting in an abstract style. A “historic painting”, in other words.’309

Voss builds an image of a pioneering artist, who was forgotten due to the louder voices of art history. In this article, she focuses on Hilma af Klint rather than on the exhibition, but the article’s coincidence with Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction affected to the opinions on the artist in the exhibition reviews. Voss repeats Müller-Westermann’s argument that due to the hostile environment for women artists, af Klint searched for acceptance among women instead of men.310 Moreover, she considers the feminist aspect of the theosophical movement:

Hardly anyone, however, believed that when women painted, the higher powers came into play. Theosophy, founded by a woman (the Russian Helena Petrovna Blavatsky), viewed things differently. Women were welcomed as members and held senior positions. In short, it was the first religious organisation in Europe that did not discriminate against women.311

Voss interprets the gender performance of Hilma af Klint in a new way. She focuses on the female solidarity of the time and searches the reasons for the refusal of af Klint oeuvre from men’s actions instead of highlighting af Klint’s own behaviour.

In her article, “The Bigger Picture” for Frieze magazine Briony Fer comments on the debate of a pioneer with the following:

The argument that Af Klint was a pioneer of abstract art who has been unfairly excluded from the canonic histories because she was a woman and a spiritualist -- might seem initially seductive. However, it also rests on some misconceptions, not least in its preoccupation with a pioneer rhetoric that is a throwback to traditional Modernist preoccupations with the origin myths of abstraction. It is undeniable that many early 20th century abstract painters drew on spiritualism to fuel their artistic projects, but this does not mean their interest in occult sources exhausts the meaning of the work. Nor should we assume that Af Klint’s paintings and drawings, any more than Kandinsky’s, can be reduced to the esoteric theosophical meanings and functions she intended for them.312

309 Julia Voss, “The first abstract artist? (And it's not Kandinsky)”, Tate Etc, issue 27, Spring 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-27-spring-2013/first-abstract-artist-and-its-not-kandinsky. 310 Múller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction”, 38. 311 Voss, “The First Abstract Artist? (And it's not Kandinsky)”. 312 Briony Fer, “The Bigger Picture”, Frieze, 1st October 2013, https://www.frieze.com/article/bigger-picture-0.

With this quote, Fer problematises the presentation of af Klint as a forgotten artist, who was a victim of the hostile environment towards the women and spiritualism in art. Fer’s point of view presents a valid argument about the historical canon that it is itself a traditional construct, which presents a Western man as a universal artist and leaves everyone else to the marginal position. However, Fer’s comment on the theosophical meanings does not consider the practice of af Klint fully. She does not include in her analysis that af Klint experienced spiritual rather than tried to understand it analytically. Thus, her criticism, that the occult sources do not exhaust the meaning of the work any more than Kandinsky’s does not consider the differences between af Klint’s and Kandinsky’s practices.

In the Nordic discourse, I will analyse the Swedish articles from the art critic Peter Cornell, the art historian Gertrud Sandqvist, the journalist, and editor Malin Ullgren and the journalist and writer Elisabeth Andersson. From Finland, I will add to the discourse the article of the journalists Kaisa Viljanen. From these agents in the Nordic cultural field, the most important ones are Gertrud Sandqvist and Peter Cornell. Besides, they both participated actively in the discursive field around af Klint, Cornell’s lecture “The Occult Alternative. On Secret Beliefs in Art and Literature around 1900.”, was marked in the program of the exhibition.313 Thus, Cornell already took part in the organization of the display.

Malin Ullgren is one of the Nordic figures, who starts the discussion about the problems of the traditional canon and the position of a woman artist. In her sarcastic article for Dagens Nyheter, “Mitt unga jag vet att Hilma af Klint är en Väldigt Viktig Konstnär” (English “My Young Self Knows That Hilma af Klint Is an Extremely Important Artist”), she joins to the discussion with the following quote:

When I follow the debate, it comes from two points of view. On the one hand, the real thing is that Hilma af Klint’s role in art history continues to be unstable. The other perception comes from my own inner cultural canon – and from a slightly funny conversation [in Ullgren’s head]. Hilma? Are you debating about her? Are you then unsure about Picasso also, or what? 314

With this, Ullgren means, that by highlighting the debate, that af Klint is the breaker of the canon, one is, in reality, saying that she cannot be included in it. Thus, from this narrative of a pioneer, she

313 Exhibition leaflet. 314 Malin Ullgren, “Mitt unga jag vet att Hilma af Klint är en Väldigt Viktig Konstnär”, Dagens Nyheter, 6th March 2013, 2. Orginal quote: ”När jag följer debatten är det ur två perspektiv. Dels det verkliga, ur vilket Hilma af Klints roll i konsthistorien fortfarande är instabil. De andra perspektivet är från min egen, inre kulturkanon- ur den är debatten lite lustig. Hilma? Tjafsar ni om henne? Är ni osäkra på Picasso också då, eller?”

recognizes the instability in acceptance of the women artists and the marginalisation of af Klint in general. Ullgren also pinpoints the consideration, that af Klint’s acceptance as part of the traditional canon is sometimes automatically considered to challenge the position of the traditional male artists, such as Picasso. All in all, Ullgren criticises that seeing women artists as marginal and radical phenomena, is excluding them instead of taking them as part of the art historical discourse.

Gertrud Sandqvist’s point of view presents the same perspective as Fer’s and Ullgren’s. In her article for Kunstkritikk, “Gåtfullt och strålande universum” (English: Mysterious and Glorious Universe), she states, that the intention to squeeze af Klint in the same canon with Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian, is destined to fail, even though she shares the same theosophical sources with them. This is because af Klint never intended to present herself as an avant-garde artist.315 Hence, Sandqvist writes: “She is not “the mother of abstract painting”.316

Sandqvist’s conclusion is entirely different from Fer’s and Ullgren’s. Even though she shares the same perception about the problematics of the art historical canon, she does not see the reason to call Hilma af Klint as a pioneer in the first place. Certainly, Sandqvist’s declaration about the denial of the “motherhood of abstract painting” is a provocation since, in the article, she shows her amazement for the oeuvre of af Klint. Sandqvist sees that the mission of af Klint has not been researched enough, and her own voice is covered under the rhetoric of pioneer. She argues this by showing the problems in the floor plan: the exhibition did not present any other series in their entirety except The Ten Largest. Moreover, Sandqvist sees that this series was not presented in the right order.317

Sandqvist, however, recognises the extreme popularity of the display and looks for the reasons for that: “Maybe now is the first time, when modernism’s bitter battles between abstract and figurative painters feel completely obsolete, and that our time can – if not understand but be affected and love these strange paintings.”318 Sandqvist’s contemplation is tied closely to the debate between the structuralist and formalist battles, which in her perspective, seem to be faded into an acceptance of marginal phenomena of art such as spiritual is. Besides the agents of Moderna Museet, Sandqvist is

315 Gertrud Sandqvist, ” Gåtfullt och strålande universum”, Kustkritikk, 25th March 2014, https://kunstkritikk.se/gatfullt- och-stralande-universum/ 316 Ibidem. Orginal quote as a complete sentence: ”Hon är inte «den abstrakta konstens moder». Försök att pressa henne in i den kanon som bildas av Kandinskij, Malevitj och Mondrian är dömda att misslyckas, även om hon delar samma teosofiska källor som dem.”. 317 Ibidem. 318 Ibidem. Original quote: ”Kanske är det först nu, då modernismens förbittrade strider mellan abstrakta och figurativa målare känns helt obsolet, som vår samtid kan – om inte förstå, så drabbas av och älska detta märkliga måleri.”

one of the rare reviewers who contemplated on the popularity of the paintings instead of being stuck on the debate of the pioneering essence of the artist.

In her article for Helsingin Sanomat, “Mystinen taiteilija maalasi tuleville sukupolville” (English: ”A Mystic Artist Painted to the Future Generations”), Kaisla Viljanen discusses the decision of af Klint to hide her paintings for twenty years. She states: “Maybe the examples from elsewhere in Europe warned af Klint that women who hear voices are not placed to an art salon but a madhouse.”319 The statement of Viljanen follows the same pattern as some of the comments from the 1980s, where af Klint was compared to Ernst Josephson. Yet, Viljanen does not mention any particular artist, nor she does not refer that af Klint was mad. Instead, she recognises the attributions of madness, often linked to the women artists and assumes, that af Klint was aware of this as well.

The narrative of discovery obtained popularity among the press. In his article for Expressen, “Handens väg” (English: “The Path of the Hand”), Cornell discusses this:

Her works had been sealed away for forty years. And when the ripples after the sensational discovery have settled, we can picture both grandness and some unevenness in her paintings at Moderna Museet’s impressing presentation. 320

In his article, Cornell points to the discovery of the wooden box instead of the whole artistry, but the number forty years makes the reader believe that the paintings have been discovered by Moderna Museet. Cornell continues his analysis on af Klint with the following:

The development of Hilma af Klint is a textbook example of how the artists at the beginning of the 20th century could take a big step from the figuration to abstraction. They dared to do it with the help of the occult, the movement which was then flourishing among the intellectuals and artists and having theosophist roots and which was led by powerful women such as H.P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant.321

319 Kaisla Viljanen, ”Mystinen taiteilija maalasi tuleville sukupolville”, Helsingin Sanomat, 30th March 2013, https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000002628766.html. Original quote: ”Esimerkit muualta Euroopasta ehkä varoittivat af Klintiä siitä, että ääniä kuulevan naistaiteilijan paikka ei ole taidesalonki vaan hullujenhuone.” 320 Peter Cornell, ”Handens väg”, Expressen, 18th February 2013, 3. Orginal quote: ”Hennes verk hade då legat förseglat i fyrtio år. Och när svallvågorna efter den sensationella upptäckten nu har lagt sig, kan vi i Moderna Museets imponerade presentation göra oss en bild av både storheten och vissa knaggligheter i hennes måleri.” 321 Ibidem, 3. Original quote: ”Hilma af Klints utveckling är ett skolexempel på hur konstnärerna i början av 1900 talets kunde ta det oerhörda steget från figurationen till abstraktion. De vågade det med hjälp av en ockult genom den då, särskilt bland intellektuella och konstnärer, blomstrade, teosofiska rörelsen som leddes av kraftfulla kvinnor som H P Blavatsky och Annie Besant.”

In here, Cornell joins af Klint to the general art historical phenomenon, in the same way than Tuchman did in 1986, using af Klint as an example of the interest towards spiritual sources in art. However, at the same time, Cornell still does not see af Klint equal to other pioneering abstract artists. Cornell continues:

Unlike the other pioneers, she exhibited her art in service of theosophy and anthroposophy. The mission to illustrate the world view of the spirits makes a part of her images to be occult, pedagogical posters rather than painting in their own real right, and therefore in the painting wise; they cannot be compared to Mondrian, Barnett, Newman or Agnes Martin.322

Cornell does not say straightforwardly that Hilma af Klint is not a pioneer, as in his articles in the 1980s. Yet, the statement about the “paintings in their own real right” have clear echoes for Greenbergian formalism, understanding art to exist only for art’s sake, which is highlighting the rationality in the artistic creation. I argue that the view of Cornell is a textbook example of the perception that af Klint’s artistic practice, based on sensitivity, is seen as less relevant than rational analysis. In other words, the sensitivity of af Klint’s practice, attributed to the female gender is not, in Cornell’s point of view, fulfilling the requirements of canonized art.

Lastly, I will shortly present the debate which was generated through the donation offer of the paintings to Moderna Museet in 2013. This debate is described in the article for Svenska Dagbladet, “Hilma af Klint i limbo” (English. Hilma af Klint in Limbo) by Elisabet Andersson, where she also links the intention of the donation in 2013 with the event of 1960s, when Erik af Klint intended to offer the collection to Moderna Museet, yet not succeeding with it.323 However, Andersson concentrates on more to the new debate, emerging in 2013. According to Andersson, Johan af Klint had discussed the donation of the paintings to the state, which was agreed by the cultural minister, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth.324 However, this donation neither did take place. In the article, Birnbaum comments on the incident with the following:

“If someone dumped all the paintings here in the lobby and said: “Now they are yours”, we would have a panic. Because we would not know what to do with them, and we cannot afford to take care of

322Ibidem, 3. Origianl quote: ”Till skillnad från de andra pionjärerna ställde hon sin konst i teosofins och antroposofins tjänst. Uppdraget att åskådliggöra andens världsförklaring gör en del av hennes bilder till ockulta, pedagogiska planscher snarare än måleri i sin egen rätt och rent måleriskt tål de då inte att jämföras med Mondrian, Barnett Newman eller Agnes Martin.” 323 Elisabet Andersson, “Hilma af Klint i limbo”, 4. 324 Ibidem, 4.

them”, Daniel Birnbaum says, who thinks that Moderna has made a targeted action for the oeuvre by now exhibiting a part of the collection, added with the efforts of conservation and digitalisation.325

Andersson sees the debate of the donation mainly administrative, where the institutions fail to communicate about the future of the collection.326 She includes in the debate the conversation of the Hilma af Klint Museum, which initiated at the beginning of the 2010s. About this, she interviews Sandqvist, who wished, that the Swedish government, together with the Foundation would execute the plan for the museum, comparing the idea to the international examples such as Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam or Picasso Museum in Paris.327 The initial discussion about the museum showed, how the Swedish press acknowledged the artist, presenting her as a national heroine, in the same way as, e.g. Van Gogh is for the Dutch. The debate of the donation did not affect the general narrative of the exhibition, but these incidents occurred at the same time. However, I argue that the intention of the donation and plans for the future museum resulted from the enormous popularity of the exhibition.

To conclude, the discourse after the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, differed radically from the discourse in the 1980s. It showed the painter as an artist who consciously painted for future generations. This interpretation about af Klint’s gender performance supported her characterizations of an independent pioneer whose legacy was hidden under the loud voices of the male artists. Especially the reviews in the United States supported the narrative of Moderna Museet about a misunderstood marginal artist. They described the debate of af Klint’s inclusion as part of the canonised art history and found the reasons for the exclusion from either the position of a woman artist or a habitus of the collection, which is deposited only in one place. On the other hand, this narrative of a canonised pioneer was questioned in the Nordic articles, where the preoccupations about the traditional historical narrative were not seen necessary. Thus, the reviewers asked, why Hilma af Klint should be placed now in the narrative which supports the traditional, male-dominated perspectives, as she was not included there in the first place?

6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This dissertation focused on the reception of Hilma af Klint and the organizational processes and aims of three exhibitions in the 1980s and the 2010s. These were Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting

325 Ibidem, 4. 326 Ibidem. 4. 327 Ibidem, 4.

1890-1985 (Los Angeles, 1986), Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint (Helsinki, 1988) and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (Stockholm, 2013). The purpose was to spot the repeating narrative patterns in the discursive field around af Klint and place these patterns in the art historiographical context. To fulfil this purpose, I analysed in a total of 29 exhibition reviews from Finnish, Swedish and English language areas. Moreover, as supplementary material, I used exhibition plans, letters and emails from the institutions involved in these three exhibitions.

Using Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough and the concepts of the cultural field and habitus by Pierre Bourdieu, I hypothesized, that particular agents in the discursive field around Hilma af Klint have crucially affected her rise into being one of the most acknowledged Swedish artists today. Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity was used as a central concept in understanding the possible traditional attributions in the gender performance of af Klint. The concept of “universal woman” is under her critique; hence she declares that feminist theories have forgotten the diversity of the woman gender trying to put all the women into one mould. Butler uses this term as a signpost leading to queer theory and the theory of gender performativity. I have reasoned that Butler’s theory could be used in understanding the traditional attributions of the female gender in the case of acts of Hilma af Klint, such as kindness, and isolation. These gendered acts are either verified or questioned in the articles under analysis. To this theoretical framework, I added the term, the false universal of a “man”, which means that humankind is essentially attributed only to men. This means that particular acts or practices attributed to woman are considered less valuable than the acts which are considered masculine.

However, I understood that the analysis of gender could not fully explain the discourse of af Klint; thus, other attributions, such as her interest in the occult were considered in the analysis. In the background, this generated an understanding that the echoes of the formalist Greenbergian perceptions have stayed vivid throughout contemporary art history, and slowly moved to the poststructuralist and posthumanist philosophies influenced by Foucault, defending the relative essence of knowledge. As the chapter of previous research shows, Arthur C. Danto tends to call this poststructuralist time post-historical, where the agreed narratives of art history are highly questioned.328 The agreed historical narratives of art history considered universal I have called canon. In my previous research, I connected this questioning of authorities to raise of interest of the spiritual. I used James Elkins and Alister McGrath, who considered the relationships of religion, spirituality

328 Danto, After the End of Art, 7

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and art, claiming that the receding from organized religion has approximated the art world towards the so-called undefined spiritual.329

The case of Hilma af Klint gave a perfect opportunity to perceive the historiographical context of art history during the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century. The case is exceptional as af Klint has risen to the international acknowledgement practically from total obscurity, and as she hardly affected the discourse of her by herself. This allowed analysing the work of the professionals who broadened of the discursive field of the artist and eventually placed her into the acknowledgement of the art world. These different agents mentioned in the dissertation are either involved in the exhibitions analysed or as long-term or one-time art critiques. Among the long-term reviewers, I must mention Peter Cornell and Gertrud Sadqvist, who have developed the discourse of Hilma af Klint since the 1980s in the Nordic cultural field. From the international field, I mention Julia Voss, who has influenced the discourse of af Klint since the 2010s.

In chapter two, I have pinpointed certain narratives, which have been essential in the creation of the myth of Hilma af Klint. The definition of myth I based on the concept of Roland Bathes, defined to be a type of speech which is chosen by history and cannot emerge from the nature of the object. 330 Thus, a myth is always a chosen construct of the narrative. My research shows that in the case of Hilma af Klint, these myths had stayed mainly the same between the 1980s and the 2010s, but the interpretation of them have changed in a way, which increasingly questions the historical narratives of art history.

At this point, it is necessary to highlight the role of Hilma af Klint’s painting practice. Although my dissertation is mostly historiographical and based on the narratives of an artist, it cannot ignore the effect of the artworks. During all their period of display, af Klint’s paintings have caused the feeling of wonder, which has been documented in this dissertation trough the interviews and art critical reviews. I see this as mostly a result of the exceptional practice of an artist who let the inner sensitivity to lead her creation. Even though I did not have an opportunity to investigate in detail these mechanisms which led to the feeling of wonder while viewing af Klint’s paintings, I argue that they are mainly a result of the practice which differentiated essentially from the analytical creation of her contemporary male colleagues. As an example, I have compared the practice of Wassily Kandinsky, who reflected on practice in his book, On the Spiritual in Art (1912). The mesmerising feeling that af

329 Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, 13. see also Arya, “Contemplations of the Spiritual in Visual Art”, 77. 330 Barthes, Mythologies, 107.

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Klint’s artworks cause has encouraged various agents in the field to continue the study and promote the artist and hence has had a central role in raising of af Klint to acknowledgement and fame.

One of the central myths on af Klint is the narrative of her last will, which I discuss in-depth in chapter 2.1. It claims that af Klint wrote in her will that the paintings should not be shown for at least twenty years after her death. This myth created speculations and explanations about the aims of af Klint in regard to her work. The narrative of the will has been linked to the discussions about the position of a woman artist or the generally hostile discursive atmosphere against the spiritual in art during the Swedish fin-de-siècle. However, as I present in chapter 2.1., the narrative of the will has been proven untrue, and any will of this kind has not been found. Yet, af Klint presented this wish of twenty years hideout in her notebook, but I argue, that the difference of the will and the notebook has not been considered sufficiently in the investigation of af Klint’s art.

Another narrative often mentioned in the analysed material is the portrayal of a pioneer. Since the 1980s, the debate about the pioneering essence of Hilma af Klint’s paintings has been a hot topic in the discursive field of the artist, and I repeat again: she was and is still compared to the canonized pioneers of abstract art, Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian, who created their abstract paintings during the 1910s. However, af Klint’s first spiritual painting was created in 1906, which, according to many, made her the first known abstract painter in the modern era. The portrayal of a pioneer was often joined to the narrative of discovery, which together created the myth about the break of the canon. I argue that the narrative of the break of the canon was undoubtedly influenced by the Foucauldian poststructuralist idea about the relativity of knowledge and aimed to prove the fragility of the canonized historical narratives in the art world.

In my thesis, I have concentrated on three events which I saw to be influential in broadening of the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. Chapter three discusses the first public display, including Hilma af Klint, The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 held in Los Angeles in 1986. It was the result of a cooperation with the various agents such as Åke Fant, Sixten Ringbom and Maurice Tuchman. I argue that the habitus of Tuchman and Ringbom had a crucial role in bringing Hilma af Klint into the first display. The overarching aim of the exhibition was to present the spiritual meanings in the art, which Tuchman called “hidden meanings”. Hence af Klint’s paintings were intended to support his aim to argue for the existence of these “hidden meanings” and provoke the public discourse on the agreed historical narratives. This was done by using af Klint as an example of an artist, who reached the same goals of abstract as her European colleagues, and by placing her in an equal position with the canonized abstract artists.

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The exhibition curated by Tuchman was ground-breaking in its time. In 1986, the general discourse about spirituality was still new, and the exhibition which brought the topic of spirituality to the light caused debate in an art world, which was used to the ideas of the Greenbergian formalism. Moreover, Tuchman's plan to present the artist, who had never been displayed before, as equal to the canonized pioneers of abstraction caused a shock. Therefore, she was initially excluded from the art historical canon, i.e. she was seen only as a marginal phenomenon. This was explained principally with her isolation; thus, the narrative of the last will was used against af Klint. On the other hand, in the Nordic discursive field, she was seen as a potential booster of the Nordic culture, and her value as a challenger of a canon was accepted, even though she was not included in it. Her artistic practice was not either understood or valued widely, and the initial comparisons with artist Ernst Josephson made by Fant implied later in the reviews the mental illness of af Klint. This was a result of the perception of the “universality of man”, where masculine practice, and analytical research, is valued higher than a practice which uses emotions and sensitivity, attributed to a woman.

In chapter four, I discuss the first individual exhibition of Hilma af Klint, held in 1988 and 1989. The art historian and the head of the exhibitions of Nordic Arts Centre, Maaretta Jaukkuri contacted Fant with interest to organize the solo exhibition Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, which was inaugurated Helsinki in August 1988, presenting the spiritual oeuvre of the artist chronologically. Jaukkuri’s habitus had a role in spreading the knowledge about Hilma af Klint, as she had international contact with the art institutions in Europe. Moreover, Fant’s vision affected the reviews both in Nordic countries and internationally. Fant saw himself as an objective researcher, and this was shown in his aims to present the artist’s biography and oeuvre in detail. Fant mainly concentrated on af Klint as a spiritual artist but also interviewed the family members widely in order to understand her character. I concluded that Fant certainly was seeing af Klint as a pioneer, but the discourse generated rhetoric of so-called half-way acceptance, where the artist’s value was acknowledged as a case which questions the narrative of a canon. This rhetoric was already visible in 1986. However, I argue that in 1988 this half-way acceptance was a result of the portrayal, which concentrated on the gendered acts of the artist. As Fant’s text presented af Klint isolated, humble and quiet, this portrayal passivized her as an artist and created a narrative, where she was not seen as responsible for her own paintings, hence she was not viewed a creator, equal to her masculine colleagues.

Chapter five discusses the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction held at Moderna Museet Stockholm in 2013. I argued, that the display of Moderna Museet created a new interpretation of the myths, and was essentially crucial in the international acknowledgement of the artist. Moreover,

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it generated a more profound conversation about the essence of canon and the agreed narratives in the art world. This new interpretation was a research result of the senior curator of Moderna Museet, Iris Müller-Westermann, but also the writings of the director Daniel Birnbaum. Moreover, the international acknowledgement and high cultural capital of Moderna Museet created a platform where the internationalization of Hilma af Klint could reach new levels.

The new interpretation of the myth used the same elements from the 1980s, such as the narratives of the last will and the discovery. The narrative of the last will was used principally to show the conscious choice of the artist, underlining her presentation as an active creator, who intentionally created her paintings for future viewers. This was linked to the narrative of a discovery where Moderna Museet played a role as an active defender of af Klint’s oeuvre. Mostly, the reviews agreed on this image of a pioneering artist. American critics created a debate between the art historians who excluded af Klint from the displays, defending the value of historical narrative and the art professionals who understood the value of af Klint’s paintings, promoting her inclusion into the canon. In the Nordic reviews, the discourse was taken further – the whole narrative of a canon was questioned. Instead, the canon was seen as a culmination of the traditional and patriarchal values, which the reviewers did not want to be part of. Thus, the reviews questioned why it should be the artist’s aim to be part of the traditional canon where she was not even placed in the first place?

To summarize my arguments, the rise of Hilma af Klint in international recognition the 2010s resulted from the new interpretation, which pinpointed the independence and creativity of the artist. However, the habitus of Moderna Museet played an essential role by bringing the new art professionals into the discursive field of Hilma af Klint. The change of the discourse of Hilma af Klint in the 1980s and 2010s shows the development from the Greenbergian formalism towards the Foucauldian poststructuralism where historical narratives are generally questioned. Hence, marginal phenomena such as spirituality in art, are investigated more than before, as non-defined spirituality represents rebellion against authorities. Also, the rise of feminism is the result of the generalization of the poststructuralist philosophy, where the traditional patriarchal narratives are not accepted anymore as universal. Lastly, the different agents in the rise of Hilma af Klint have played a crucial part either by spreading and creating the new interpretations about the myth of Hilma af Klint or by possessing high cultural capital which made them invite more professionals to the discursive field of Hilma af Klint.

As further research, I pinpoint how Hilma af Klint’s case could be used in an investigation of art criticism and its mechanisms. I must argue, that the undoubtedly feminine practice of af Klint, where she listened to her inner sensitivity, could have been one of the main reasons why she has been

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underrated as an artist. This speaks of the still ongoing dominance of masculine values in the art word, where the practices attributed to the female gender are not considered severe enough. This creates a gap in the society where half of the population is ignored in the historical narratives. However, the case of Hilma af Klint shows that historical construction is slowly turning its interest away from the strictly masculine or rational perceptions. During my discussion with Iris Müller-Westermann, the reason for interest in the other stories was contemplated: “But now people are more open towards spiritual dimensions. --- Now we are invited to broaden our perspectives. Hilma af Klint’s work invites us to see ourselves in a bigger picture.”331

Maybe we have finally understood that the world and its narratives are not led only by one perception. Art and art criticism are one solution to contemplate the new ways of collaboration, which eventually could create a better world for us humans and nature. Maybe the art of Hilma af Klint opens up a way to understand the value of our emotional side and our connection to the world we live in and see that rational thinking is not always the only way to reach our goals.

To conclude this chapter and my dissertation, I have to say that the journey into the discursive field around Hilma af Klint has given me new courage in the research of the variety of narratives in our surroundings. Also, I consider the artistic practice of Hilma af Klint as something that should be investigated further. How has she actually reached this level of meditation, and how could we learn from that? But, let us see what the future brings.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank Dr Maaretta Jaukkuri, Mr Ulf Wagner and Dr Iris Múller-Westermann about your openness and dedication to give insightful moments in conversations about the topic, which is a passion for us all. Your advice and encouragement have formed a grate basis in my thesis, and I hope this dissertation is able to acknowledge that.

For the English writing advice and wonderful comments, I must thank my dear friends, the PhD student of Linguistics at Stockholm University, Beatrice Zuaro and my fellow student of art history, and the current Master’s student at the University of Cambridge, Helen Bremm, who despite their own duties, had some time to take a look for my text. Thank you also for the language advice in

331 Iris Müller-Westermann in conversation with Anni Reponen on the 17th of July 2020.

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Swedish translations to the fantastic artist and my beloved partner Lukas Cornix who moreover has been a vital force during the stressful Spring and Summer 2020. Evidently, all the faults in this text are mine only.

And thank you, my supervisor, Andrea Kollnitz, who has made sure that I push myself to the best levels in this thesis process.

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Ullgren Malin, “Mitt unga jag vet att Hilma af Klint är en Väldigt Viktig Konstnär” Dagens Nyheter. 6th March 2013.

Vankin, Deborah, “LACMA’s campus has been a work in progress since its 1965 opening”, Los Angeles Times. 3rd July 2018 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-lacma-timeline-20180703-story.html.

Valkonen, Markku, “Hilma af Klintin vaikea tie mystiseen abstraktioon”, Helsingin Sanomat, 4th October 1987.

Viljanen, Kaisla, ”Mystinen taiteilija maalasi tuleville sukupolville”, Helsingin Sanomat. 30th March 2013, https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000002628766.html.

Voss, Julia, “The first abstract artist? (And it's not Kandinsky)” Tate Etc. Issue 27. Spring 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-27-spring-2013/first-abstract-artist-and-its-not-kandinsky.

Internet sources

Helsingin taiteilijaseura, “Näyttelytila ja kuvat”, last visited 18th August 2020. https://helsingintaiteilijaseura.fi/haa-galleria/nayttelytila/

The Hilma af Klint Foundation, last visited 19th August 2020. https://www.hilmaafklint.se/en/about-hilma-af-klint/.

Maaretta Jaukkuri Foundation, last visited 14th March, 2020. http://mjfoundation.no/left/mission/.

Moderna Museet, “The Alpine Cathedral and the City Crown”, last visited 11th August 2020. https://www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/exhibitions/the-1st-at-moderna-josiah- mcelheny/more-about-the-exhibition/.

MoMA, “Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Jan15-Mar12, 1989, MoMA PS1”, last visited 18th August 2020. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4507?.

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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Press Release, “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future Most- Visited Exhibition in Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s History”, last visited 19th August 2020. https://www.guggenheim.org/press-release/hilma-af-klint-paintings-for-the-future-most-visited- exhibition-in-solomon-r-guggenheim-museums-history

Non printed sources

Online lecture by Gertrud Sandqvist,’”I immediately said Yes” - Hilma af Klint’s visions and her time”, HISK Higher Institute for Fine Arts, 15th April 2020.

The Donner Institute Archives, Turku, Finland:

4 Protocols: 6th October 1958 § 9. 14th October 1960 § 16. 10th April 1961 § 6 and § 7. 10th September 1962 § 1.

The Danish National Archives, Copenhagen: Letters: Kevin Foxby to Birgitta Lönnell on 21st of November 1988. Kirsti Berg to Rebecca Quaytman on 16th of December 1988.

Lise Funder to Maaretta Jaukkuri on 9th of February 1988.

Maaretta Jaukkuri to Dominique Nahas 1st March 1989. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Åke Fant, 3rd December 1987. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Lise Funder. 3rd February 1988. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Steiner Gjessin, 18th February 1988. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Else Bulow 15th February 1988. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Gustaf af Klint 22nd September 1988 Unknown (supposed Jaukkuri) to Åke Fant and Gustaf af Klint 27th December 1988. Maaretta Jaukkuri to Rebecca Quaytman in 8th of April 1989.

Rebecca Quaytman to Maaretta Jaukkuri 18th August 1988, Rebecca Quaytman to Maaretta Jaukkuri (No date available).

Archives of Moderna Museet, Stockholm:

Contract between Moderna Museet and Hilma af Klint Foundation, 30th May 2012. Fact Sheet, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. Floor Plan, Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction, Moderna Museet

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List of Participants, 15th-16th of February 2013 at Moderna Museet and Engelberg Manor. Project Plan Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstarction.

Emails and letters:

Dirk Blübaum to Iris Müller-Westermann, 7th of June 2011,

Iris Müller-Westermann to José Lebrero Stals 12th of March 2012. Iris Müller-Westermann to José Lebrero Stals, 21st of September 2011

José Lebrero Stals to Daniel Birnbaum, 21st of September 2011. José Lebrero Stals to Iris Müller-Westermann, 12th of March, 2012,

Tracey Bashkoff to Iris Müller-Westermann, 24th of March 2013.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. HILMA AF KLINT - The Swan no. 17. Group IX, The SUW/UW Series, 1915 Oil on canvas, 155 x 152 cm © The Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet

Figure 3. HILMA AF KLINT- Primordial Chaos No. 1, Group I, The WU/Rose Series, 1906 Oil on canvas 50x38cm © Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet

Figure 4. HILMA AF KLINT- Altar Paintings, 1915 No 3. 1915 Tempera and oil on canvas 185x152cm © Hilma af Klint Foundation / Photo: Moderna Museet

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Figure 5. “Gustaf af Klint, Caroline and Cristina Staudt admire and try to understand the works of Hilma af Klint” Karlsson, Alvalene P, ””Secret” Paintings Revealed by Swedish Hilma af Klint”, Nordstjernan- Svea. 19th January 1989. © Nordstjernan.com

Appendix I: Used materials for the discourse analysis

1986-1987

Beskow, Per, ”Hilma af Klint”, Sydveska Dagbladet, 12th December 1987.

Brenson, Michael, “Art View; How the Spiritual Infused the Abstract”, The New York Times, 21st December 1986.

Cornell, Peter, “Hilma, svensk ande i konsten” Expressen. 17th October 1987.

Dillenberger, John, “The Spiritual in Art - Abstract Painting 1890-1985 The Los Angeles Times, 22nd February 1987.

Kramer, Hilton, “On the “Spiritual in Art” in Los Angeles” The New Criterion. April 1987.

Romaire, Kristian, ”Det andliga i konsten och Hilma af Klint” Sydsvenska Dagbladet. 30th November 1987.

Sem-Sandberg, Steve, ”Det andliga i konsten” Svenska Dagbladet. 18th November 1987.

Valkonen, Markku, ””Anna minulle sisäisen kirkkauden kuva”, Hilma af Klintin tie mystiseen abstraktioon”, Helsingin Sanomat. 4th October1987.

1988-1989

Cornell, Peter, ”Andarna fñrde penseln”, Expressen, 5th September 1988.

Ekbom, Torsen: ”En föregångare i hemlighet” Dagens Nyheter. 26th August 1988.

Enckell, Carolus,”Taiteilijan roolista” Taide. Vol 4. 1988.

Hölkers, Marta, ”Helmligstämpeln lyftes 20 år efter hennes död” Svenska Dagbladet. 7th August 1988.

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Karlsson, Alvalene P, ””Secret” Paintings Revealed by Swedish Hilma af Klint” Nordstjernan-Svea. 19th January 1989.

Pirtola, Erkki, ”Hilma af Klint, Idän ja lännen imaginaatiot” Takoja. 27th October 1988.

Rossi, Leena-Maija “Jokainen kuva on alttari”, Helsingin Sanomat. 11th August 1988.

Rubin, Birgitta ”En ovanlig konstnärinna. ”Andarna” gjorde henne till en föregångare” Dagens Nyheter. 24th September 2020.

Sandqvist, Gertrud, ”Målningar till Templet” Hufvudstadsbladet. 13th August 1988.

Smith, Roberta, “Review/art; Hilma af Klint, explorer in the realm of the abstract” The New York Times. 3rd February1989.

2013-2015

Andersson, Elisabet, ”Hilma af Klint i limbo” Svenska Dagbladet. 21st February 2013.

Bomsdorf, Clemens, “Did a Mystic Swede Invent Abstract Painting?” The Wall Street Journal. February 28th 2013.

Cornell, Peter, ”Handens väg” Expressen. 18th February 2013.

Fer, Briony, “The Bigger Picture” Frieze. 1st October 2013.

Rachlin, Natalia, “Giving a Swedish Pioneer of Abstraction Her Due” The New York Times. 29th April 2013.

Sandqvist, Gertrud, “Gåtfullt och strålande universum” Kunstkritikk. 25th March 2014.

Ullgren, Malin, “Mitt unga jag vet att Hilma af Klint är en Väldigt Viktig Konstnär” Dagens Nyheter. 6th March, 2013.

Viljanen, Kaisa,“Mystinen taiteilija maalasi tuleville sukupolville” Helsingin Sanomat. 30th March 2013.

Voss, Julia “The first abstract artist? (And it's not Kandinsky)” Tate Etc. Issue 27. Spring 2013.

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Appendix II: Selected list of the prominent figures mentioned in the thesis

Baskhoff, Tracey pp. 84-85

Birnbaum, Daniel pp. 17 and 85-91

Cornell, Peter pp. 20, 53-55, 72-75 and 94-98.

Enckell, Carolus pp. 70-71 and 121

Fant, Åke, especially pp. 14-17 and 58-68

Fer, Briony pp. 17 and 94-95

Jaukkuri, Maaretta pp. 1-2, 16, 58-64 and 116-121 af Klint, Erik pp. 14, 46-47, 65-67. 80 and 98 af Klint, Gustaf pp. 58-64, 69 and 77 af Klint, Johan pp. 81 and 98

Lalander, Folke p. 16

Lindén, Gurli pp. 16 and 28

Nittve, Lars pp. 60 and 80

Müller-Westermann, Iris pp. 17, 30-37, 78-91 and 126-136

Oberhuber, Kondrad pp.47-49

Pirtola, Erkki p.70

Ringbom, Sixten pp.15-16, 20, 36-37 and 47-49

Rubin, Birgitta pp. 73-75

Sandqvist, Gertrud pp. 16-17, 28-37, 47, 70-73 and 95-96

Smith, Roberta pp. 2 and 76

Sundström, Olof pp. 14, 35 and 48

Tuchman, Maurice pp. 15, 19 and 41-49

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Quaytman, Rebecca pp. 62-63 and 83

Voss, Julia pp. 17-18, 34-40 and 91-95

Wagner, Ulf pp. 47 and 121-126

Appendix III: Maaretta Jaukkuri in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 22nd of October 2019

Maaretta Jaukkuri: After her death in 1944, Hilma af Klint was shown for the first time, and this was in Los Angeles. [Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, 1986]

Anni Reponen: Was this your first encounter with her art?

MJ: Yes. I was studying the catalogue, and I noticed the artist. I started wondering who this interesting woman artist was, and my curiosity increased as I noticed that she was Swedish. And I became interested in her more and more as I found the works really beautiful. I started to research and found the Hilma af Klint Foundation, as well as the art historian Åke Fant, who was the art historical expert of the Foundation. Among the members of the Foundation, there was also her nephew Gustaf af Klint and probably also some other family members.

AR: So, the other family members, besides Gustaf af Klint, did not actively participate in the exhibition organization? [The exhibition in question is The Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 1988]

MJ: Well... They were, of course, active in such a way that they permitted us to have the exhibition, and then they came to the opening. But that was all.

AR. My first question is how all this [the organization of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint] started.

MJ: I contacted Åke Fant by mail - at that time, we did not have email - and I do not remember that we used fax either, at least at the beginning. And he became interested in the project and suggested a meeting. And then we agreed to meet in Stockholm. He took me to the old barn, which was used as a storage space, somewhere near the Anthroposophical Centre in Järna. It was a grey and gloomy autumn day in October. We went into the barn, he took a crate, opened it, and started to unroll the paintings. I was about to faint just there. I had never seen anything like that. The paintings looked new, and they were in very good condition. They had been taken out of the frames, so they were just canvases with protective sheets in between. It was a poetic moment. And I was convinced that we wanted to show these works if it was possible.

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contacted Moderna Museet’s then-senior curator Lars Nittve to ask if we can show these paintings in Helsinki. It meant that we had to start the conservation and framing project. We engaged Tuulikki Kilpinen from the Ateneum Art Museum for this. It was, of course, a very costly and took several months. It was fine for Nittve that we showed the exhibition first. The paintings were in the premises of the Nordic Arts Centre at Suomenlinna from autumn 1987 to August 1988 when the exhibition opened. While this work was going on, there were many artists visiting the centre. I sometimes showed the paintings to them. I remember a young Norwegian artist who had to go out to vomit after seeing the paintings. The effect was so strong to him.

While this was going on, the centre was preparing another exhibition, Nordic Concrete Art, which was first shown at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki (1987) and later toured all the Nordic countries. We showed a series of Hilma af Klint’s watercolours in this exhibition.

It seems some Finnish people influenced in the background the organizing of the exhibition at Guggenheim [Paintings for the Future, 2018]. The Forsblom family supported the exhibition financially. I have to say that the catalogue of that exhibition was particularly good. They had also checked that all the information was correct in the epigraphy. Moderna Museet left the Nordic Arts Centre’s exhibition out from their catalogue [Hilma af Klint - A Pioneer of Abstraction, 2013]. I do not know the reason for this. Anyways, the information about the Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint is written correctly in that American catalogue, and it mentions the whole tour as well, as the exhibition toured later to New York, Iceland, and Norway. And a year after this tour, it was shown in Moderna Museet [in 1989]

AR: Af Klint is discussed in a connection to spirituality in art. Was spirituality a common topic in the 1980s?

MJ: I think this discussion started more widely later on. Her art was, in general, such a radical thing back then. I remember that the former director of Nordic Arts Centre Erik Kruskopf (1979-1986), who had researched abstract art and was also a long-term critic at Hufvudstadsbladet, wrote a column where he claimed that if the artworks have not been presented in their due time, they cannot be taken at their full significance afterwards. I do not agree, but this kind of discussion existed.

All these are quite academic discussions, but interesting as such. During the Helsinki exhibition, the brain researcher Matti Bergström gave a talk on the topic of af Klint’s oldest abstract work [No.1. 1906]. It contained brown and blue, and he claimed that these colours come from the deepest human layers of consciousness. This can be part of the scientific reasoning of her art. As we know, to Hilma af Klint, they were messages from spirits. There have also been other women artists at the time or a bit later who were inspired by the same sources as Hilma af Klint.

AR: Yes. As far I know she followed quite actively different trends of art of her time. She also saw Edward Munch’s work in Stockholm, even though they are more symbolist than abstract. It is also clear that through anthroposophy, he knew Steiner’s thinking.

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MJ: And she might have known Kandinsky’s writings. She travelled apparently more than has been known. She visited in Steiner’s Dornach quite regularly, and Stockholm might have displayed some abstract art as well. But she also increasingly secluded herself when she got older. She got into abstraction through spirituality and, in particular, theosophy, which was also among Kandinsky’s interests. Theosophy and spiritualism have been important to abstract art also in a wider perspective, not just to af Klint and Kandinsky.

I do not know how much she was in contact with the other artists in Stockholm, otherwise than having these spiritual seances.

AR: There are two kinds of messages about her personality: on the one hand, she was isolated and, on the other hand, she was a traveller.

MJ: It is also interesting that she was not a very romantic person, instead very organized and also mathematically talented. I think that sentimentality was not a part of af Klint’s personality.

AR: But then it appeared in her art.

MJ: I think she understood emotionality more as a way to broaden consciousness than something that has to do with sentimentality as such,

AR: I also have a couple of questions about Åke Fant. Do you know how much he had researched the topic before?

MJ: As far I understand, he was interested in anthroposophy and applied mainly this framework when studying Hilma af Klint’s work. He was the first who dug deeper into this topic. I have heard that he used to often talk about af Klint in the department of culture and aesthetics at Stockholm University, where he worked at the time.

There has been a discourse if it was good that af Klint got engaged with the world and ideas of Steiner. I am not equally interested in the works which show great influence by Steiner. They are quite smudged paintings. I have a feeling that the relationship with Steiner was not artistically advantageous for her. But luckily it was just a period during which she thought that Steiner could understand her.

AR: Then, I would ask something about the organization of the exhibition [Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, 1988]. Was it shown at the Gallery Rantakasarmi?

MJ: Yes, it was at Gallery Rantakasarmi. Currently, the venue is in use by the Artists Association of Helsinki. But the venue was different then; all the four rooms were in use. There were about 130 artworks. Some of the artworks were quite small, though. Fant wanted it to be more or less a chronological retrospective of her artistic development.

AR: Was there some difference between the four rooms in the exhibition space?

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MJ: Yes, there was. The walls of the Gallery Rantakasarmi are not very high, so we could not include some of the largest paintings to the exhibition, instead, they were exhibited for the first time in Finland in the exhibition of the Helsinki Kunsthalle [Hilma af Klint – Pioneer of Abstraction, Helsinki Kunsthalle 2014].

AR: And then in the exhibition of Amos Andersson, only some smaller works were presented?

MJ: Yes, it was a theme-based exhibition. And there were only some of the watercolours. But it was the first exhibition in the Nordic Countries. Then, af Klint was not at all known, and she was more noticed during the exhibition at Nordic Art Centre at Suomenlinna. It got a lot of attention in Finland and Sweden. Lots of Swedish newspapers wrote detailed articles about it. They were focusing on the issue that she was the first abstract painter, as well as that she was Swedish.

AR: I read in a text written by Daniel Birnbaum, that before af Klint was shown at Moderna Museet in 2013, she was not appreciated. Birnbaum claimed that she would have got quite a much critique, especially at the beginning of the 2000s but also in the 1980s.

MJ: That is possible. It is quite interesting, because I have an experience that af Klint was especially important to women artists, and not only in the Nordic Countries. I have visited in Brazil the studio of the painter Beatriz Milhazes, and I saw a postcard of af Klint’s painting on the wall. The artist was very taken by Hilma’s art. And many other women artists have taken her as their own as well, among them Ann Edholm and Anne Katrine Dolven; also, some critics such as Gertrud Sandqvist.

And I think artists take these things in a little bit differently than the press or art critics. It has been a huge boost to the self-confidence of women artists when it was discovered that it was a woman who was the first abstract artist.

AR: I agree. In the same way, the encounter with her paintings was an extreme wow -experience to myself - even though I am not an artist.

MJ: Yes, I remember the same experience as well, when I started to look at af Klint’s works. I was amazed repeatedly, and it started at that dramatic moment in the field when I first saw her paintings. By the way, the very first painting that I saw in Järna, was this red painting, which has been displayed often [Swan no. 17, 1915]. It was a truly exceptional experience.

AR: I can imagine.

MJ: Yes. They were all so beautiful. One does not have to think about any histories while looking at the paintings, only experience them.

AR: Was there, by the way, some Finnish artists, who might have had similar experiences?

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MJ: I do not think the generation of the 1980s would have been influenced by af Klint’s paintings, but maybe it started showing in the art of the younger generation when the paintings have been included more in the tradition of painting. But in the 1980s it was too early. I think society had to process the event.

I also remember that the members of the Foundation came to the opening of Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, Gustaf af Klint as well as other family members. And they said that the af Klint family has Finnish origins. I do not know more about this. In any case, they seemed very happy that the first exhibition was organized in Helsinki. As the family had Finnish roots and the venue was at the Nordic Art Centre, which developed projects all around the Nordic region, the place was perfect for the first exhibition.

But I have never been to an opening where everyone was so silent. The exhibition was quite a shock to everyone.

AR: Yes, I bet it affected quite many people.

MJ: Moreover, af Klint’s story was touching, and there are so many exciting facts, for example, the fact that the paintings should not be shown in 20 years after her death, and then it ended up taking 44 years. It is impressive that the family kept the promise to Hilma af Klint as it was stated in her will and saw it as a matter of honour.

Currently, there has been much discussion that the Foundation would not like to share the collection with the Anthroposophic movement. They are about to design this Hilma af Klint museum, but they have not started to build it yet. Probably it is some economic issue. And the Foundation does not want the artworks to be separated. Because the wish was that the collection would stay together, and it has been until now.

AR: Let us see what happens with the museum project. It is such an interesting atmosphere around this all right now, isn’t it?

MJ: Yes, it is. I also remember that a little bit after Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint, there was a similar discussion about if the collection should be separated and spread information about her that way. There were conflicting opinions, but apparently, the Foundation decided to keep the whole collection together.

This discussion took place also during the New York exhibition in PS1 Gallery. It was quite a modest venue; it was the artist-curator Rebecca Quaytman who took the initiative and promoted the exhibition there. I do not know how she got to know about the exhibition at Suomenlinna, but she is the daughter of Harley Quaytman, who was an abstract painter, who also visited Helsinki during those years. But that exhibition was not noticed as much either in American or Nordic media at that time.

AR: No, apparently. The exhibition at PS1 is talked about quite a little, even nowadays.

MJ: Now, of course, af Klint is a bigger phenomenon than then. It would be nice to know how the reception has been in different countries and at different times, especially now when she is immensely popular. I wonder what kind of reception she has got in Germany in these anthroposophist circles. In Finland, she has been

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discussed as well. Pirkko Kotirinta, who is a journalist at Helsingin Sanomat, and wrote this article [Pirkko Kotirinta: “Maalasi Henkien Kanssa”, Helsingin Sanomat, Dec 30th, 2018], is very interested in Hilma’s art and family.

Still one thing; there is a series of dispositives, which were taken of af Klint’s artworks after her death. These diapositives are at Åbo Akademi. There was a librarian, who knew af Klint [Olof Sundström], and he took care of them. And Sixten Ringbom, who brought af Klint’s artworks to Los Angeles exhibition, was a professor at Åbo Akademi. So, there is all the time these interesting connections to Finland. But more research is needed.

AR: Yes. I have read as well that Ringblom was one of the first ones, who researched spirituality in art. He was researching the topic when Sundström was at Åbo Akademi.

MJ: Yes. He wrote about early abstract art, [The Sounding Cosmos, 1970], but it was much before the exhibition in Los Angeles. But when he was writing this book, maybe he encountered with the artworks of af Klint. But anyways, at the time, he was one of the important persons in the investigation of the abstract art, and he was contacted by the Los Angeles County Museum to recommend artists for The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985, and that is how af Klint was included in the exhibition. At least, that is how I know the story. I hope it is more or less correct.

AR: That makes sense, at least. Thank you for this interview. It has been a remarkably interesting conversation.

MJ: You are welcome. And do not hesitate to contact me if you have anything more to ask.

Appendix IV: Ulf Wagner in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 12th of May 2020

Ulf Wagner: I think your thesis is interesting because I knew all the people you are writing about. I was a close friend to Åke Fant. Gertrud Sandqvist and Carolus Enckell I know and knew very well. And, during my training at the Art School in Stockholm, I had a chance to have the assistance to Peter Cornell.

Anni Reponen: It is interesting, that even though we are in a small environment such as in Nordic Countries, lots of the people in the same field are connected socially. But how interesting that you actually knew or know nearly all of these people.

UW: Yes, it is. First time when I encountered with the paintings of Hilma af Klint was in the barn where we went together with Åke Fant. And everything was laying in those boxes. It was just a little room, maybe 20 square meters.

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AR: It was in Järna, this barn?

UW: Yes, it was. I have been part of the Foundation since then. And in 1995, I became a board member of the Foundation. I took over Åke Fant, who first became ill and then he suddenly died.

AR: So Fant was the board member of the Foundation since the very beginning?

UW: Yes, from the beginning. The Foundation was founded in 1972, and he was on the first board. But one important thing I have to say now when I remember: he was not theosophist but an anthroposophist.

AR: Yes, there is quite a difference, actually. So, you have been as a board member since 1995. How has the situation and reception towards af Klint changed among the years?

UW: I think everyone is incredibly surprised about the attention she gets nowadays. In regards to the exhibitions, we are fully booked until 2024 in all over the world.

AR: How was it like in 1995 compared to now? How was the reception, or how she was discussed?

UW: At the beginning, of course, there were many critical voices. And compared to for example to the Guggenheim exhibition, everyone was there very positive. I have not read any negative reviews about the Guggenheim exhibition. But there can be some, I do not know.

AR: Yeah. It might be kind of different, how she is reviewed today maybe, like compared to the reviews from the 1980s. I have read of course some articles from the 1980s, which have been quite critical towards her. For example, in one the article of Expressen by Peter Cornell [Cornell, Peter, ”Andarna förde penseln”, Expressen, 5th of September 1988], there was this discussion about the issue, if she is a great artist or not.

UW: Yeah. This kind of critical reviews was also written during the Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 in 1986. Many of them were male critics who argued that she is only doing what spirits are telling her to do. But they forgot that someone must paint the paintings. But fortunately, now the conversation has changed a lot.

AR: Do you think that the spiritualism could be one reason why she interests so many people today? Like there was the theory in the 1980s that the raise of the interest towards spiritualism in abstract art, was raising the interest towards Hilma af Klint.

UW: I think that one of the main reasons was that she is a woman artist. That is very important. And her biography is extraordinary, so that also interests people. Actually, this happens very seldom in modern art, that someone comes from nowhere into prominent museums. And it is a little complicated with Hilma af Klint. I don’t think that she would have recognized herself in the exhibitions.

AR: Why do you think that?

UW: Because from her point of view, she was not an abstract artist. Not at all. I have read maybe five or six thousand pages of her notebooks, and she does not mention abstract art ever because, from her point of view,

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the paintings were not abstract. It is something that the art world has created. I mean she is much more a symbolist painter because everything she does has a symbolist source. And today of course people look upon her as an abstract artist, but she would not think that not at all. Because her intention was never to be part of modern art history. But I mean, I think it was the exhibition at Moderna Museet in 2013, and they wanted to make her an abstract pioneer. And I mean she is, she is of course, but it is a little more complicated than just that.

AR: Yes. I think so too, that it is a little more complicated than that. And sometimes I think this question of being a pioneer of abstraction is not even a relevant question. And I think that this same discourse was also going on in the 1980s. Actually, also Carolus Eckel put in his article in 1988 this is not relevant. It is interesting how the same discourses go and tour throughout the decades over and over again.

UW: From my point of view, I have seldom read a text that has understood what Hilma af Klint was longing to express. She is painting through the series. And for her, every series is a narrative. It has a beginning, and it has an end. But if the series is broken and one only sees one part of the series, people cannot understand what it is all about. Because often the museums and curators do not pay attention to this narrative – at least earlier. This has changed during the last two or three years – but the museums tended to present only one point of view. And then, one cannot actually see what it is all about… For example, in the exhibition at Moderna Museet seven years ago, the paintings from the Swan series were mixed up with each other, and they did not follow the chronological order. But anyway it was a nice exhibition which started something new. And of course, I know the curators very well who did it. Now in Malmö, her paintings are presented chronologically.

AR: In this new one which is behind the closed doors because of the pandemic?

UW: Yes. It will open in one month, though.

AR: I was thinking about Åke Fant. I read the thesis of Mia Körling, from 2012. I noticed you were interviewed there too. And I found this interesting detail that Fant presented the paintings to this curator, Konrad Oberhuber. Could you tell me more about this event?

UW: Yes. He was a director in Vienna. And I met him together with Fant. And actually, I think he was the one who recommended the paintings to Sixten Ringbom, and to the exhibition Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 in Los Angeles.

AR: Ahaa. So, he was the one presenting the paintings to Ringbom, and then Ringbom presented the paintings to Maurice Tuchman in Los Angeles?

UW: Yes. Ringbom was responsible for the Nordic part of the exhibition. And Oberhuber was a co-worker to him at that time. But it was Oberhuber, who said that they must include these paintings in the display. Oberhuber was, for example, a director at Albertina Graphic Art Museum in Vienna.

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AR: Interesting. I must investigate that further. Was he also involved in the organization of the Los Angeles exhibition, or did he just know Ringbom as a colleague?

UW: I think he was involved because the art world had just discovered that there was something behind the pioneering abstract artists and that many of these artists tried to reach the abstract form trough patterns or different kind of spiritual questions. Mondrian was a member of the theosophical movement, and Malevich in Russia was interested in the esoteric level. And of course, Kandinsky. I think it was Sixten Ringbom who discovered that Kandinsky was extremely interested in anthroposophy.

AR: Yes, it has been discussed. But also, there was this book of Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, published already in 1912, and Ringbom wrote his investigation, The Sounding Cosmos in the 1960s. So, I wonder that there might be a gap.

UW: Yes, of course. Kandinsky wrote the On the Spiritual in Art in 1912. It is a thin book, where he tried to understand how to reach the language of art, which is not emerging from this world. It is an interesting book, and maybe af Klint must have seen it. And Kandinsky talked very much about Blavatsky and Besant too. I have read it many times. Kandinsky is the first one who mentions the expression “Spiritual in Art” in modern time. And he tries to look upon it from a theoretical point of view. And for him, the spiritual is part of everyone’s life. But he is not looking at it from the religious point of view as Hilma af Klint does.

AR: And that is also interesting how he started to write about the topic, which came later in the 1960s investigated. But he kind of started the investigation and artistic practice at once.

UW: Yes, exactly. I personally became interested in this field in the 1970s. But you know, that was the hippie time. So many young people were interested in spirituality, but they were not really interested in it intellectually, but more in the feeling. But then this interest disappeared, and now again many people have become interested in it. I do not know how many master’s theses and texts I have read about the interest of this topic in contemporary art history.

AR: Yes. I think spirituality as a topic is huge now.

UW: It is even mainstream.

AR: Yes, it is mainstream, indeed. Nowadays, nearly every second exhibition, spirituality is somehow connected. Which is also interesting in that perspective that Hilma af Klint was raised to the common interest in the 1980s when spirituality was a current topic, and again now she is popular.

UW: I think you are completely right. Actually, I saw the first exhibition at Sveaborg [Suomenlinna] in Helsinki. But I have seen her paintings exhibited at the first time in the late 1970s, I think. But then none of the large paintings was framed.

AR: In the 1970s? That is pretty early.

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UW: Yes. There was a little exhibition for some weeks. And that was the first time when they were displayed to the little public.

AR: And this 1970s exhibition, was it in Järna?

UW: Yes. It was not in any art institution; it was just in a big room. But the Ten Largest were displayed there. Five or six of them. They did not have frames, and they were just hanging there rolled open. It was very primitive. It was an exclusive display. But there were maybe a few hundred people who saw that. But I mean, if people looked at the works, they could see that she was an excellent painter. But if people do not have the context, it is difficult for them to understand what they are looking at.

Nowadays, there is so much mythology around her. For example, she never said in her will that the paintings should not be shown in 20 years. And it is a mistake which is written in many catalogues. But actually, the will does not say that. She writes it in her notebook, though. But this claim has been in the first catalogue, and then it has developed during the years. And I think the mistake comes from Åke Fant, who talked to Erik af Klint. And maybe it could be that Erik has heard it from Hilma. I have tried to find the will which says that, but I have not found anything. Also, Julia Voss denies this and many other contemporary investigations. It is more as an anecdote today.

AR: It is interesting, because in this anecdote also the amount of years is often changing. It has been presented to 20, 30, 40 or 50 years. There is kind of a broken phone effect happening.

UW: Yes, of course. In many of the catalogues, the things are not adequate today. Because these things are not found in the primary sources. But even if there are some errors, for example in Åke Fant’s writings, I still personally think that Fant’s book is the best one, if you want to understand Hilma af Klint’s art. Because he really tries to describe it in the most objective way. From the art-historical point of view and the philosophy of the paintings. And also, the background of the esoteric meetings and so on. He tries to describe what she did or how she described her work.

AR: Yes. I have noticed that Fant does detailed work. Of course, everything is not adequate today, but for example, when one tries to understand the series of the paintings, Fant is the best source for that.

I aimed to ask also about the processes of the Moderna Museet exhibition A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013 and the Guggenheim exhibition Paintings for the Future in 2018. How has the situation changed from the year 2012?

UW: After Moderna Museet, we got many requests about future exhibitions, and I think many people started to raise interest in the research about Hilma af Klint. It was not much before, but maybe now I have read 50 master’s theses about this topic. And now I do not have time to read them all. I think now several people are doing a PhD about Hilma af Klint: in Brazil, USA, Germany, and Sweden of course. And especially after Guggenheim, the interest has been extraordinarily high. I have been handling these things, but now it is too much. We have employed a new full-time director, Jessica Höglund. I have talked with her every day in order

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to put her into the business. It is a really nice feeling to let her take over. There are so many travels, and I am getting too old, so I am going to leave it over to someone younger.

She has been a curator at Artipelag. And it was quite funny because I got a mail from Artipelag and they wanted to do an exhibition on Swedish women artists in nine decades, and Hilma af Klint was one of the artists they wanted to use. And I met her in the Royal Library. Unfortunately, they could not get the paintings they wanted, but they got some others. And then I said I must go in 20 minutes because there are too many things to do, and we must employ someone new. And I said: “Maybe you are interested”. And a week after I got a mail where she said that she is extremely interested. And we interviewed around ten people, all of them women, and finally, she was the one who was the most suitable for the position. And this is the second week she is working with us.

AR: What a coincidence. I wrote an article about that exhibition to the Finnish magazine. [Anni Reponen, “A Chosen Story of Hidden Womanhood”, Mustekala, 5th May 2020.]

UW: Yeah. And she also made her master’s thesis on Hilma af Klint. She made her thesis in Åbo Akademi… But yes. You are welcome to come back to me if there is something you are wondering about.

AR: Thank you very much. And thank you for this interview.

Appendix V: Iris Müller-Westermann in Conversation with Anni Reponen on 17th of July 2020

Iris Müller-Westermann: So okay, tell me a little about your project.

Anni Reponen: Yes. I am going to analyze the reception of Hilma af Klint. I compare two exhibitions from the 1980s [The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986) and Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint (1988)] to the Moderna Museet's exhibition [Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction (2013)] from 2013. So, I will analyze three displays, manly in the perspective of reception but also considering how these projects developed. Like in this case, I am interested how Moderna Museet ended up taking Hilma af Klint as part of the exhibition program in 2013.

IMW: How did you become interested in Hilma af Klint in the beginning?

AR: When I saw the paintings for the first time, I was stunned by them. I was excited about how this painter can paint this kind of stuff, moreover this early. For me, it was kind of a boost of confidence. I think it has been a boost for so many people, especially for women. As she represents the understanding of that some

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agreed narratives are not actually true. So, I started to investigate who this artist was and how she has been talked about in different eras.

IMW: Wonderful! I was the curator of the 2013 Hilma af Klint exhibition in Stockholm. It was an exciting project. It was the first retrospective of the artist.

Now I am the director of the Moderna Museet Malmö, and we have just opened a comprehensive Hilma af Klint exhibition some weeks ago [Hilma af Klint – Artist, Researcher, Medium]. I would highly recommend you to come to see it because you will not have the possibility to see 230 major works of hers in a show in Sweden for the next, I guess, at least 20 years.

But back to 2013, I met with Maurice Tuchman, who was the curator of the exhibition The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985. He came to the opening of our exhibition in 2013. But af Klint was suggested by Sixten Ringbom, a significant Finnish art historian. He was a scholar of Kandinsky and contributed an article on Kandinsky to the catalogue of the Los Angeles exhibition. Ringbom had contact with the Anthroposophical Society in Åbo, where he encountered Hilma af Klint's work and suggested to Tuchman to include works by af Klint. So, the first time her abstract work was shown publicly was in that group exhibition in Los Angeles. There were about a dozen works by af Klint presented.

AR: Yeah, thirteen or something like that. It was a tiny sample.

IMW: I think one or two of The Ten Largest were there… But the other exhibition you are researching [Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint] was curated by Lars Nittve who was a curator at Moderna Museet together with Åke Fant, who had done intensive research on af Klint and did even his dissertation on the artist.

AR: That display was first introduced in Helsinki. Then it travelled to New York, Norway and Reykjavik. And after that, it was displayed at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, where Lars Nittve participated in the curatorial process, and it had a different name [Hilma af Klint – Occult Painter and Abstract Pioneer (1989)]

IMW: Was not it in the Netherlands as well?

AR: That was the Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985. It was in the Netherlands, in Haag. It was also shown in Los Angeles and Chicago.

IMW: Yes, and that one was important in the United States. And then there was another exhibition, at Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm in 1999. Have you looked at that too? [The Paintings for the Temple (1999)]

AR: Yes, I have looked at the catalogue a little bit

IMW: The curator Folke Lalander became unfortunately ill and could not finish the project himself. But this exhibition was large and had its focus on The Paintings for the Temple. But the show did not have the impact you would expect. It seems the time was not ready to attract a wider audience.

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You asked how Moderna Museet decided on showing Hilma af Klint in 2013. The idea to make the first retrospective of Hilma af Klint's work came from me. I was Senior Curator for International Art at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and had shown af Klint together with the Russian Avant-Garde and the Abstract movements earlier. I displayed her works together with artists from our collection like Malevich, Kandinsky and so on. In 2007 I had done an exhibition with the American contemporary artist Josiah McElheny whose work, The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown (2007) the museum just had acquired. While McElheny had exhibited that specific work at MOMA in a white space. I suggested to Josiah to show the work together with other visionaries of the beginning of the 20th century among them Hilma af Klint since McElheny's’s work dealt with visionary glass architecture projects by Bruno Taut. When he saw af Klint’s works, he was totally stunned and agreed, and we surrounded his installation with works by af Klint and other pioneers of abstraction, which looked wonderful.

From then on, my questions on Hilma af Klint’s work increased and led to the wish to curate a retrospective of her work. I wanted, among other things, to understand how her early work connected to the artist who later did The Paintings for the Temple. I was early in contact with the Hilma af Klint Foundation. It was under Lars Nittve’s directorship that in 2009 or 2010 the decision was taken to show Hilma af Klint at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. So since then, I started working on the project.

I found that she was looking at things with a very scientific eye already from the beginning of her artistic carrier. She painted extremely in detail, especially when you think of her botanical studies, her portraits, and her landscapes of the 1890s. She never changed something to make a person or a flower more beautiful. She seemed to see the perfection in everything. And then in 1896, she started to engage in seances and in a meditation practice together with a group of four other women, who called themselves The Five. The five women were experimenting with meditative practices and changing their brain waves for ten years. And at some point, af Klint felt she could differentiate her own thoughts from something that came into her mind during this practice that was not her own.

There is a continuation of her practice in trying to understand herself and the bigger picture of who we are. And if most people still think it is too far out for us to perceive images from higher planes of consciousness. She had learned during ten years through her meditation practices to put her ego to the side and not to judge what came in. The other four women were rather afraid of these processes. They did not want to be part of Paintings for the Temple which Hilma af Klint received as a commission. But she carried it out.

And this leads us to the topic of courage you were talking about. She said yes to a project she did not even know what it would be about, and she only felt it was something very important. Hilma af Klint executed the Paintings for the Temple from 1906-1915, and then after 1915 she continued to paint, but she also spent a lot of time trying to understand the meaning of these 193 paintings which she regarded as her most important body of work.

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Af Klint is not only somebody who did abstract paintings earlier than Kandinsky. But she had a firm belief in the spiritual dimension. You cannot understand the work by only looking at her as an early abstract painter even if she was a great one and that she was a woman. I think what she achieved is much bigger than that. She was much more courageous than that: a pioneering artist, who very early had the courage to open herself to a wider understanding of the world and human consciousness. Hilma af Klint believed in the power of the image.

I think it was helpful that we did a symposium, where many art historians, religion historians etcetera from different countries - United States, Germany, France...- were invited to discuss af Klint’s work and how it could be understood.

I think it is interesting to know that the Hilma af Klint exhibition in Stockholm 2013 was the most attended exhibition by a Swedish artist at Moderna Museet since its opening in 1958. There has never been a male Swedish artist either who has attracted so many visitors. The attendance figures were exceeding our wildest expectations. The exhibition travelled to five further venues in Europe, (Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Picasso Museum Málaga, Louisiana, Humlebaek; Helsinki Kunsthall; Konstmuseum Tallinn) and was visited by more than one million people.

If you ask me about the display in Stockholm, it was very open and aimed at letting the audience experience the works not with their minds only but with their whole beings. I worked with the Berlin-based architects of Chezweitz on the architecture and scenography.

The growing interest in Hilma af Klint’s work led then 2018 also to the exhibition at the Guggenheim [Hilma af Klint – Paintings for the Future (2018)]. The selection was based on the Stockholm 2013 exhibition and included ca 160 works. This exhibition became the most visited in Guggenheim’s history, 600 000 people saw it. Here the spiral was used as a clue and key for the display of Hilma af Klint’s work.

AR: I found it interesting how they connected Hilla Rebay’s vision of The Guggenheim building’s spiral with Hilma af Klint’s vision about her Temple.

IMW: It was smartly done. Spirals play an important role in af Klint’s paintings. But while the Guggenheim exhibition rather wanted to keep the spiritual aspect on “armlengths distance”, I think one cannot neglect the spiritual dimension if one wants to understands Hilma af Klint’s work. So, what we did in 2020 in the large exhibition in Malmö, [Hilma af Klint – Artist, Researcher, Medium] is that we emphasize the spiritual and that one can only understand Hilma Af Klint’s work seeing her as an artist, a researcher and as a medium. So, the spiritual is absolutely connected to the core of her work.

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Hilma af Klint teaches us many things; one of them is that art history needs to be broadened. In my view, it is not so interesting that she was doing abstract works before Kandinsky, who claimed to be the first abstract artist in the 20th century. But it is interesting that artists reached abstraction from different angles.

AR: Yeah. It is interesting how Kandinsky thought about the spiritual. He had such an analytical point of view. He wrote a whole book about this [On the Spiritual in Art, 1912]. And then af Klint was more meditating and reaching the spiritual emotionally. I am seeing formalist and rational echoes which are still affecting, for example, the curators of the exhibition in MoMA. And how this division is mainly between the reason and emotion, and how these two things are attributed traditionally to male and to female.

IMW: Yes. I think it is interesting what you say. All these male artists were so into concepts. And the world of men was also a world of competition, about being better or more important than someone else; writing all these manifestos and making themselves seen and heard with elbows out.

But the time at the beginning of the 20th century was exciting, as many people understood that reality was larger than what we could perceive with our five senses. Röntgen discovered the X-rays, and Hertz discovered the electromagnetic waves. Those are invisible things, but they had a huge impact on humanity. It was a time when people understood there is something larger, we are part of, and they wondered how to come in contact with it. And most of the men, like Kandinsky, who also was a lawyer, an intellectual person, did it analytically. But in that way, you only come to a certain level. I would not say that Hilma af Klint’s project was emotional, but she dared to open up to a greater reality where nobody had a map to guide her. She only listened inside and trusted her spirit guide.

I think it is interesting, that today, with the discoveries of quantum physics, we know that everything is energy. Everything has its own frequency. Also, images have frequencies. Hilma af Klint courageously dared to go for what she believed was important.

Talking about the difference between the exhibitions in 2020 and 2013. [Hilma af Klint – Artist, Researcher, Medium and Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction]. Both displays have about the same amount of works, circa 230. In 2020, we included more than 70 works which were not shown in 2013, where we introduced af Klint with a retrospective to a wider audience, who did not know the artist. In 2020, the focus is on The Paintings of the Temple, and the viewer is surrounded by each series when going through the exhibition. That makes the experience stronger and clearer. It also lets the viewer discover the systematic approach of the artist. The Altar Paintings are in the end and hold the essence of the whole commission. But the last part is the research room where works from all phases of Hilma af Klint underline the research she undertook in different fields of the micro- and macrocosmos.

The Malmö exhibition received very positive reviews from the press and is embraced by the audience. In 2013, many journalists just asked what all these paintings were about and how we should read them. It was also discussed if they could be understood as art, taking into account the way they were received mediumistically.

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But now people are more open towards spiritual dimensions. And our exhibition is sold out every day even if Covid-19 is challenging us. The reviews are fantastic. So, I really think Hilma af Klint painted for the future, one hundred years ago. And this future is now. Now we are invited to broaden our perspectives. Hilma af Klint’s work invites us to see ourselves in a bigger picture.

AR: I think the same. Right now, so many people are interested in spirituality again. But in the 1980s, there was a wave of interest in spirituality also. I wonder, how are these two periods different?

IMW: In the 1980s, the interest in spirituality was not so widespread. I think more people are more open today.

AR: How did the aims of the Malmö exhibition and the Stockholm exhibition differ?

IMW: The Malmö exhibition is taking place in the whole museum, and Moderna Museet Malmö is now Hilma af Klint’s Temple for six months. With the 2013 exhibition, my intention was to see how her early naturalistic works connected to the later works. Now the focus is on Paintings for the Temple. The exhibition is like a dance of life. It is organized in series which unfold while you walk through the exhibition space.

You understand in this exhibition even more clearly how dedicated, and courageous Hilma af Klint was. I feel that we could not have done this exhibition in 2013, which we did now, in 2020 because people were not ready for that then.

AR: I understand completely. I will visit the exhibition in autumn.

IMW: Yes. I think you should give yourself this present. As I said before, I think it will take many decades before we can see Hilma af Klint’s oeuvre in Sweden in a deeper level with 230 works in the next at least two decades.

AR: Yes. It is very important to show the continuous in her oeuvre instead of giving samples of her paintings.

IMW: Are there any more question you are interested in?

AR: Yes. I have some. I was interested in very practical stuff, such as the whole progress, the contact with other institutions etcetera. On the other day, I was in the archive of Moderna Museet, and I found out that some of these tour institutions contacted with Moderna Museet in quite an early stage, like in 2011. So, I was thinking, how did they get to know about the exhibition or how was it announced?

IMW: We were in contact with Hamburger Bahnhof before the opening in Stockholm 2013. Later, I as being the curator contacted the Picasso museum in Málaga because I liked the idea that af Klint would be shown under the same roof as Picasso. Moreover, the museum is very beautiful, and the director became very interested. The Louisiana Museum’s director came to the exhibition opening at Moderna Museet and became interested in taking the exhibition to Humlebaek. I further offered the exhibition to the director of Kumu in Tallinn while the Helsinki Konsthall contacted the Moderna Museet and showed its interest in taking the

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exhibition to Helsinki. Everything just developed, and nothing was planned from the beginning. We just saw opportunities and continued with them.

AR: I wanted to ask how the contact with the Foundation during this project in 2013 was?

IMW: I had the first contact with Gustav af Klint, who was the Head of the Hilma af Klint Foundation at that time. With him, I discussed the possibility of doing a retrospective exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. He was very positive about it and showed me boxes of works which have not been unpacked since the artist's death. Gustav passed away before the project was really started and his brother Johan af Klint took over. The Foundation was all the way very supportive of the project. The good relationship between our institutions also continues after the 2020 exhibition.

Okay, now you have a Summer of work in front of you. Good luck, and if there is anything more, do not hesitate to ask.

R: Yes. They are going to be very intense last weeks. Thank you very much for this discussion. It has been very inspiring.

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