When an exhibition of the Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint’s works went on display at the Guggenheim in 2018-2019, the show was an unexpected blockbuster which attracted 600,000 visitors and set the record for the most attended show in the museum’s history. The public could not get enough of the pioneering female artist whose arrival to her place in art history was as enigmatic as the paintings she created.
Now, in what feels like a bit of art world magic, David Zwirner is unveiling eight works by the artist previously undiscovered and unseen which will go on view starting November 3 at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location.
The paintings, which are from af Klint’s Tree of Knowledge series, are a set of watercolor works on paper the artist created between 1913 and 1915 which she gifted to Rudolf Steiner, the founder of spiritual and philosophical movement, Anthroposophy.
Af Klint’s work was heavily inspired by mysticism, spiritualism, theosophy and science hence her admiration of Steiner and his philosophies (and likely reason for the gifting), but until now it was thought the only iterations of the series in existence were owned by the Hilma af Klint Foundation. However, this newly discovered Tree of Knowledge series was given to Steiner without much fanfare who then passed them on to Albert Steffen in 1925. Steffen was a poet, painter, and Steiner’s successor as President of the Anthroposophical Society and the paintings sat as part of Steffen’s foundation for decades until the foundation discovered them after which the paintings became part of a private collection.
Although many of her male contemporaries such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich have been credited as leaders in the movement of abstract art, af Klint’s own experimentations with abstract and symbolic paintings were seen as early as 1906, long before the others.
Unlike her counterparts in the movement who discovered their styles as parts of the avant-garde community, af Klint found her way to abstraction through this interest in the worlds of the spiritual and supernatural, and even through messages from higher powers, all of which helped her create and define her unique style and imagery. Her most ambitious paintings are not only mysterious in their symbolism and supernatural motifs, brilliant in their color combinations, other-worldly in their shapes, they are also massive in scale which was unseen at the time.
To her credit, Af Kilnt created her revolutionary artistic vision and impressive body of work as a woman during a time when female artists were not supported within the art world. Yet, she managed to become one of the first women to be admitted to study painting at Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
While now she is considered as the founder of Western abstract art, part of the reason af Klint was unrecognized during her time is because the artist herself felt the world was not ready for her work and had very strong mandates around its exhibition and consumption. Upon her death in 1944, af Klint’s body of work included over 1300 paintings and 124 notebooks with which she left very strict instructions to keep them out of the public eye for decades until the world might be more receptive to her creations.
It is for all these reasons and more the discovery of these new paintings is so exciting.
The series that will be on display at David Zwirner are prime examples of af Klint’s passion for the spiritual and explore and combine the concepts art nouveau with biblical themes which the artists then melds with enigmatic imagery, organic shapes and striking colors. Also within the paintings are themes of, “life and death, darkness and light, spirit and matter, and being and becoming,” according to the gallery’s official release.
Alongside this exhibition, David Zwirner Online will present an Exceptional Works online viewing room which will take an in-depth exploration of the history behind this remarkable set of watercolor works on paper for digital audiences.
Tree of Knowledge runs from November 3 until December 18, 2021 and requires an appointment to visit the gallery and see the works in person. Visits can be scheduled through this link.