Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) is one of the most significant 19th/20th century abstract painters in the Western art history canon, but exhibitions and public access to her works may soon cease. Chairman of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Erik af Klint, also the artist’s great grandnephew, has indicated that this is what the artist would have wanted, based on a close reading of the Foundation’s statutes.
Af Klint was deeply involved in spiritualism during her lifetime, an exploration reflected in her artistic practice as well as her life. In an interview with Swedish publication Dagens Nyheter, Erik af Klint has insisted that the artist’s work “is a message from the spirit world”, and “when a religion ends up in a museum, it is dead”.
This decision would put the programming of many museums at stake and has already attracted widespread criticism. In 2018-19, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future broke the attendance record for a single exhibition in the history of the Guggenheim Museum, with over 600,000 visitors in attendance.
Read: Exhibition review: Hilma af Klint, The Secret Paintings, AGNSW
Although the Hilma af Klint Foundation was established in 1972 by her nephew, also named Erik af Klint, this mission to change the Foundation’s approach to the statutes is recent, following the younger Erik taking up the Foundation’s helm only two years ago.
But there is some leeway in his reading of the Foundation’s statutes, which state that Hilma af Klint’s art should be available to “those seeking spiritual knowledge” or those who can contribute to “fulfilling the mission” intended by the artist’s “spiritual mentor”. The crucial word that would support Erik af Klint’s claim is missing – “only”.
On the Foundation’s website, the Board has made it clear that their interpretation of the statutes rests in a “more contemporary context” and strives to “make the work available to those who wish to see it and those who seek knowledge about Hilma af Klint’s art, regardless of religion or belief”.
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Erik af Klint believes that while books and posters cannot be taken back, all of Hilma af Klint’s work should be kept in one place and only displayed to those who are driven by “a spiritual seeking in line with Hilma’s. It cannot be spiritual seeking in the way of a Muslim or a Hindu”. This will likely take the form of a temple, aligned with an uncompleted project noted in the artist’s journal during her lifetime.
He is also against the sale of Hilma af Klint’s paintings by the Foundation, which currently permits works to be sold to help preserve the Collection, with the exception of the Paintings for the Temple series (1906-1915).
Erik af Klint has filed a petition with the Stockholm District Court, arguing that the Board’s decision to exhibit Hilma af Klint’s paintings thus far violates the statutes and all members, other than himself, must resign.
Visibility driven by market forces?
While many see the exclusion of general public viewing for Hilma af Klint’s works to be a great loss culturally, some suggest that the pushback is predominantly driven by market forces, considering the immense investment potential of Klint’s paintings whenever they become available for purchase – especially given the difficulty of obtaining one, even according to the current terms of the Foundation.
Af Klint’s record auction price currently sits at US$165,825 (AU$238,555) from 2019, whereas some male artists of her generation, with achievements on par, hammer at 10 to 100 times the price. Erik af Klint also suggests in his petition to the Stockholm District Court that previous and current members of the Hilma af Klint Foundation have profited from her commercial success posthumously.
When the artist left all her abstract paintings – over 1200 pieces – to her nephew, she specified that her work should not be shown and kept secret for at least 20 years after her death. Her works were first exhibited to the public in The Spiritual in Art in 1986 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a considerable portion of the sector attribute Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013 as a breakthrough moment for the artist’s widespread international recognition.
Many have seen the importance of af Klint’s inclusion in the art history canon through a feminist lens, at a time when her male peers, including Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee, were more widely attributed as pioneers of abstraction.
The importance of visibility has mostly come through Hilma af Klint’s descendants and art historians who have recognised the significance of her output, rather than the artist’s own desire. Af Klint saw, not her paintings, as the medium, but herself, as one for the spiritual world.
Many have weighed in on the topic through social media. Some suggest that to disregard af Klint’s own wishes and stress public accessibility fundamentally disrespects her ethos. Others argue that to assess the topic solely by considering public interest is to suggest that cultural institutions and museums are neutral spaces, which overlooks the fact that, more often than not, they may have their own agendas.
The core of the discussion appears to be a tug of war on artistic legacy, and the best way of honouring such in an age when importance equals visibility, rather than critical engagement – a risky argument that threatens to fall down the slippery slope of quantity not quality.
While Erik af Klint’s vision may sound exclusionary, shouldn’t there be space for art and culture that is deemed by its creator, family or community to be sacred? If Hilma af Klint were still alive, we could imagine the answer to be very different.
