As is usual with a lot of historical records, men often take the credit for work created or invented by women, overshadowing their achievements simply because they lived (and still do) in a white patriarchal society.
Other overlooked female luminaries include: Ada Lovelace, 1815-1852, (computer programming); Mary Anning, 1799-1847, (palaeontologist); Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-97, (writer, philosopher, feminist); Rosalind Franklin, 1920-1958, (chemist and biophysicist); Marie Stopes, 1880-1958, (birth control). Obviously, I could go on.
And the same is true for the invention, or creation, of abstract art. Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky is the self-proclaimed ‘father’ of abstract art, stating that the first abstract painting was made by him in 1911. However, Hilma af Klint’s work predates Kandinsky’s by several years.
Klint was born in Sweden (1862-1944) and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She was an accomplished artist and made a living selling her realistic and representational work. However, it was her interest in spiritualism that inspired her to create abstract works. Klint joined the anthroposophy movement which explored the connection between science and the spiritual world, which they believed was observable. That we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. In fact, Klint showed her ‘abstract’ work to anthroposophy founder, Rudolf Steiner who hated it. Steiner later showed Klint’s sketchbook’s to Wassily Kandinsky. You may draw your own conclusions.
Much of Klint’s work explores the connection between, nature, (sacred) geometry, the universe, science and spirituality. She created ‘automatic drawing’ as early as 1896.
Hilma af Klint felt she was being directed by a force that would literally guide her hand. She wrote in her notebook:
“The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke.”
It is a technique I frequently try to emulate. Whether it comes from a divine connection to the universe or merely the unconscious mind is open to debate. But it is a very therapeutic and expressive way to practise art.
Personally, I think her abstract work is stunning.
You can read a more detailed account of Hilma af Klint’s life and work here.