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”.
