Once considered an outsider artist, after her show at the Guggenheim Museum was seen by more than half a million visitors, Hilma af Klint firmly established her place in art history.

She has also been the subject of documentary films and biographies. In 2013, Iris Müller-Westermann organized the first retrospective exhibition of af Klint’s work. Now she presents us with the latest information and research in an extensive survey show, which she curated together with Milena Høgsberg, at the Moderna Museet in Malmö. Of crucial importance is the issue of spirituality in af Klint’s painting—how the artist managed to translate both the material and the immaterial world into a pictorial vision.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue investigates, from a variety of perspectives, the question of how this trailblazing abstract artist linked her painting to a higher consciousness. Essays by art historians, a quantum physicist, a spiritual teacher, and an historian of theosophy and esotericism, among others, provide insights into a world beyond the visible which fascinates us now even more than ever.

HILMA AF KLINT (1862–1944) studied painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She turned to abstraction in the wake of her profound exploration of spirituality and theosophy. She is regarded as a pioneer of abstract art.