Research Catalog

Title

Hilma af Klint : a biography / Julia Voss ; translated by Anne Posten.

Author

Voss, Julia, 1974-

Publication

• Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022.
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Posten, Anne

Description

xv, 405 pages, 48 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits; 23 cm

Summary

"A highly anticipated biography of the enigmatic and popular Swedish painter. The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was 44 years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained. While her naturalistic landscapes and botanicals were shown during her lifetime, her body of radical, abstract works never received the same attention. Today, it is widely accepted that af Klint produced the earliest abstract paintings by a trained European artist. But this is only part of her story. Not only was she a successful woman artist, but she was also an avowed clairvoyant and mystic. Like many of the artists at the turn of the twentieth century who developed some version of abstract painting, af Klint studied Theosophy, which holds that science, art, and religion are all reflections of an underlying life-form that can be harnessed through meditation, study, and experimentation. Well before Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich declared themselves the inventors of abstraction, af Klint was working in a non-representational mode, producing a powerful visual language that continues to speak to audiences today. The exhibition of her work in 2018 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City attracted more than 600,000 visitors, making it the most-attended show in the history of the museum/institution. Despite her enormous popularity, there has not yet been a biography of af Klint-until now. Inspired by her first encounter with the artist's work in 2008, Julia Voss set out to learn Swedish and research af Klint's life-not only who the artist was but what drove and inspired her. The result is a fascinating biography of an artist who is as great as she is enigmatic"--

Uniform Title

Hilma af Klint. English (Posten)

Alternative Title

Hilma af Klint.

Subject

• Klint, Hilma af, 1862-1944
• Painters > Sweden > Biography
• Women painters > Sweden > Biography
• Painters
• Women painters
• Sweden

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-399) and index.

Language (note)

• Translated from the German.

Contents

Family, childhood, and youth in Stockholm -- Study at the Academy and independent work -- Paintings for the Temple -- Dornach, Amsterdam, and London -- Temple and later years.

Call Number

JQE 23-182

ISBN

• 9780226689760
• 022668976X

LCCN

2022020200

OCLC

• 1304361024
• 1304361024

Author

Voss, Julia, 1974- author.

Title

Hilma af Klint : a biography / Julia Voss ; translated by Anne Posten.

Publisher

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Copyright Date

©2022

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-399) and index.

Language

Translated from the German.

Added Author

Posten, Anne, translator.

Translation Of:

Translation of: Voss, Julia, 1974- Hilma af Klint.

Research Call Number

JQE 23-182