Hilma af Klint was an abstract painter before the term existed. A visionary, trailblazing figure inspired by spiritualism, science, and the riches of the natural world around her, she began in 1906 to reel off a series of huge, colorful, sensual, and strange works without precedent—but for years did not exhibit them in public. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was an all-but-forgotten figure in most art historical discourse before her long-delayed rediscovery.
Director Halina Dyrschka's dazzling, course-correcting documentary—featuring commentary by Wex Artist Residency Award recipient Josiah McElheny—describes not only the complex life and craft of af Klint, but also the process of her erasure by patriarchal and capitalistic narratives of artistic value. As New York Times art critic Roberta Smith wrote in her review of the Guggenheim exhibition, af Klint's "paintings definitively explode the notion of modernist abstraction as a male project." (93 mins., digital video)
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Review: "'Hilma Who?' No More," Roberta Smith, New York Times
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MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Ohio Arts Council
American Electric Power Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Nationwide Foundation
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Huntington Bank
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Kaufman Development
Cardinal Health Foundation
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Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint