Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum

Hilma af Klint

The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood

1907

This abstract piece uses colorful and bold colors and clearly shows many reoccurring themes, such as ellipsoid shapes and spirals. I found that this piece matched the title very well - the vibrant colors and abstract flower and butterfly-like shapes remind me of childhood. The spirals in this piece look like the early stages of what are snail shells in the other pieces within The Ten Largest. I read that af Klint drew snail shells as a reoccurring pattern because of their role in evolution. Childhood’s orange, rose pink, and sky blue colors remind me of the early stages of life. To me, these colors represented innocence and purity when a child has just been born.

Hilma af Klint

Evolution, No. 7

1908

This is one of my favorite pieces I saw at the museum - it reminds me of biology class. The dusty black background looks like a chalkboard, and there are spirally scribbles of chalk and chalk dust all over the piece. Af Klint’s knowledge in Darwin’s concept of evolution becomes clear here, although at the time that she created this piece, evolution was still not a fully accepted subject. This is one of the reasons why she believed the world was not ready to see her work until decades after her death. There are also many snail shells in this piece - they grew from her repetitive spiral drawing, and the snail’s body is the embodiment of continual growth and change. The snails are also used because they represent the base level. 

Hilma af Klint

The Swan, No. 1

1914-15

This is one of af Klint’s least abstract pieces - it is a part of a group of paintings and shows the relationship from one composition to the next. In this piece, the swans are completely separated, but the swans intertwine and become one throughout the compositions. I read that the swans are supposed to symbolize the union of opposites. The features, such as light and dark, male and female, and life and death, are all in opposition, and this piece shows that the combination of two opposites results in resolution. This piece reminds me of Yin and Yang in Chinese philosophy and culture. Similarly, this concept believes that everything exists in opposition yet intertwined.

Hilma af Klint

Altarpiece, No. 1

1915

This was one of her final pieces of her work on The Paintings for the Temple. This piece was supposed to show how the sun rises and sets - the circular shape at the top represents the sun. The pyramid on the bottom half is separated into the colors of the rainbow; at the top, the colors become lighter, while at the bottom, they become darker. This reminds me of how when beam of white light passes through glass, refraction occurs and separates the colors within white, creating a rainbow. However, in this case, the whiteness of the colors at the top actually show how when light shines on colors, they become brighter and closer to enlightenment, while the colors at the bottom are not lit by the sun. This connects the spiritual and scientific worlds.

Hilma af Klint 

The Dove, No. 12

1915

This piece looks like the planet, Saturn and has one of the astrological signs at each of the four corners. At the center of this planet-like shape is a tiny red circle - in this case, the red is supposed to represent happiness.  This series of paintings is said to be one of the most intimate ones out of all of The Paintings for the Temple. Inside the red circle looks like two people with wings, one a yellow-gold color, representing the male, and the other a blue color, for the female. The wings are another reoccurring theme of af Klint’s, as she also used them in The Swan series. This is supposed to show how although each person is tiny compared to a whole planet, the union of a family is otherworldly yet still familiar to people.