An artist both of her time and well ahead of it, Hilma af Klint was a rare original. Years before such Modernist pioneers as Piet Mondrian and Vasily Kandinsky dipped their brushes into abstraction, af Klint was breaking ground with colorful, energetic compositions that veered away from the figurative. Influenced by her experiences with Spiritualism, she attempted to reconcile art, science, and religious pluralism through her brilliant paintings. In her lifetime she primarily exhibited her more conventional artwork and ultimately decided that the world wasn’t ready for her abstract magnum opus, The Paintings for the Temple. She decreed in her will that her work not be shown for 20 years after her death. Over a century after their creation, these masterpieces have garnered international acclaim, and the artist’s star is on the rise.
