The Temple
Hilma af Klint
Dec 11, 2022 – Jan 15, 2023
The Temple, an exhibition that invites visitors into the spiritual world of Swedish artist and mystic, Hilma af Klint.
A devotee of esoteric Christianity and member of several spiritual and occult movements, af Klint dreamt of a spiral-shaped building to house her most important works. The idea never materialised, and the temple remained an imaginary creation – until now.
More than a century later, the artist’s vision has been brought alive in the form of an immersive experience that will take visitors on a cosmic journey into the enigmatic universe of the artist.
Hilma af Klint (1862 – 1944) is one of Sweden’s most prolific artists, known for her large-scale abstract and occult paintings. Widely regarded as a major artistic innovator and visionary, in 2018 a large survey at the Guggenheim Museum in New York became the best-attended exhibition in the history of the institution.
To coincide with this exhibition we hosted a talk between critically acclaimed artist Es Devlin, Acute Art’s Director Daniel Birnbaum and author and journalist Farah Nayeri. You can listen back here.
"You have mystery service ahead, and will soon enough realise what is expected of you" – Hilma af Klint
About Hilma af Klint
Af Klint was born in Stockholm in 1862 and went on to study at the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with honors in 1887. She soon established herself as a respected painter in Stockholm, exhibiting deftly rendered figurative paintings and serving briefly as secretary of the Association of Swedish Women Artists. During these years she also became deeply involved in spiritualism and Theosophy. These modes of spiritual engagement were widely popular across Europe and the United States—especially in literary and artistic circles—as people sought to reconcile long-held religious beliefs with scientific advances and a new awareness of the global plurality of religions. Af Klint’s first major group of largely nonobjective work,The Paintings for the Temple, grew directly out of those belief systems. Produced between 1906 and 1915, the paintings were generated in part through af Klint’s spiritualist practice as a medium and reflect an effort to articulate mystical views of reality.
In partnership with
Acute Art collaborates with the world’s leading contemporary artists, providing access to cutting edge technologies that allow them to translate their creative vision into NFTs, and virtual and augmented realities.
Stolpe Publishing specialise in high quality non-fiction books on art, history and culture. And has just released the Hilma af Klint catalogue raisonné in seven volumes. Stolpe Publishing was founded in 2018 and is part of the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
