The swedish artist Hilma af Klint, 1862- 1944, belonged to a group called 'De Fem' (The Five) who strove towards self-knowledge and mystical thought through messages from future higher beings.
She was an active member of many spiritual associations and, after an involvement with Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical movement, became a member of Rudolph Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society.
After ten years of practice with De Fem, in 1906, af Klint was singled out to embark on a solo project to pursue occult knowledge which they described as ‘all the knowledge that is not of the senses, not of the intellect, not of the heart, but is the property that exclusively belongs to the deepest aspect of your being. the knowledge of your spirit’
Her experiments with automatic drawing, a method developed by the surrealists as a means of expressing the subconscious, lead her towards an inventive geometric visual language capable of conceptualising invisible forces both of the inner and outer worlds.
She continued adding to her prolific body of work, amounting to over 1000 pieces, until 1941. She requested that it should not be shown until 20 years after the end of her life.
