Edited by Iris Müller-Westermann. Text by David Lomas, Iris Müller-Westermann, Pascal Rousseau, Helmut Zander, et al.
Just before her death in 1944 at the age of 81, the Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint stipulated that her paintings were not to be publicly exhibited for 20 years. In fact, another 40-plus years were to pass before inklings of her vast oeuvre began to reach public consciousness, with the landmark 1987 exhibition and book The Spiritual in Art. Since then, critics, artists and historians have praised her with ever-increasing awe, and today af Klint’s paintings, watercolors and sketches--numbering over 1,000 in total--have never looked so contemporary, presaging as they do the works of Beatriz Milhazes, Elizabeth Murray and Tal R., and Agnes Martin, Emma Kunz and Arthur Dove before them. For af Klint herself, as a medium for an art she was despairingly unable to comprehend, contemporaneity was irrelevant: her work--much of which was dictated by a spirit guide named Ananda--unfolded in complete ignorance of Kandinsky, Malevich or Mondrian, who likewise practised an abstraction informed by theosophy and occult philosophy. Af Klint’s abstractions preceded those of Kandinsky, who is usually credited with inventing abstract painting: as early as 1906, she was devising large-scale canvases filled with grids, circles, spirals and petal-like forms--sometimes diagrammatic, sometimes biomorphic. She was painting watercolor monochromes in 1916, and making automatic drawings long before the Surrealists. This monumental 280-page monograph, with 200 color plates, is the first full Hilma af Klint overview. A landmark publication, it not only reveals the moving lucidity of her art, but challenges the narrative of abstract art in the twentieth century.
Featured image is reproduced from Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction.
Herbert Pfostl, the New Museum Store's inimitable curator and book buyer, is at it again—compiling sophisticated and provocative book lists for the compulsively curious. His Best of 2013 list features quite a few gems from the ARTBOOK | D.A.P. list, including Hatje Cantz's essential Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction, The Jewish Theater Stockholm's Marguerite Duras: MD, MER. Paper Kunsthalle's Words and Coins: From Ancient Greece to Byzantium, Dust-to-Digital's Pictues of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio: 980-1980, Snoeck's Adam Helms, Max Ström's The Worlds of August Strindberg and Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais' Carnet de Carnets de Gisèle Freund. continue to blog
When Moderna Museet, Stockholm, mounted the first major retrospective of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) last April, all the world took note, for this little known artist turns out to have been one of the truly great artists of the twentieth century. Astonishingly, in her will, af Klint herself had had forbidden her heirs to exhibit her most challenging abstract works until long after her death—so sure was she that her contemporaries would not understand their meaning. Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction is one of our most exciting exhibition catalogs of the year, as well as one of our top Holiday Gift Books of 2013. Featured image is "The Swan, No. 12," from the SUW/UW Series, created October, 1914 – May, 1915. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 8.5 x 11 in. / 280 pgs / 200 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 ISBN: 9783775734899 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 6/30/2013 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Iris Müller-Westermann. Text by David Lomas, Iris Müller-Westermann, Pascal Rousseau, Helmut Zander, et al.
Just before her death in 1944 at the age of 81, the Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint stipulated that her paintings were not to be publicly exhibited for 20 years. In fact, another 40-plus years were to pass before inklings of her vast oeuvre began to reach public consciousness, with the landmark 1987 exhibition and book The Spiritual in Art. Since then, critics, artists and historians have praised her with ever-increasing awe, and today af Klint’s paintings, watercolors and sketches--numbering over 1,000 in total--have never looked so contemporary, presaging as they do the works of Beatriz Milhazes, Elizabeth Murray and Tal R., and Agnes Martin, Emma Kunz and Arthur Dove before them. For af Klint herself, as a medium for an art she was despairingly unable to comprehend, contemporaneity was irrelevant: her work--much of which was dictated by a spirit guide named Ananda--unfolded in complete ignorance of Kandinsky, Malevich or Mondrian, who likewise practised an abstraction informed by theosophy and occult philosophy. Af Klint’s abstractions preceded those of Kandinsky, who is usually credited with inventing abstract painting: as early as 1906, she was devising large-scale canvases filled with grids, circles, spirals and petal-like forms--sometimes diagrammatic, sometimes biomorphic. She was painting watercolor monochromes in 1916, and making automatic drawings long before the Surrealists. This monumental 280-page monograph, with 200 color plates, is the first full Hilma af Klint overview. A landmark publication, it not only reveals the moving lucidity of her art, but challenges the narrative of abstract art in the twentieth century.
