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until 15.05. | #2729ARTatBerlin | Grisebach is reopening after the Corona closure the exhibition “Hilma af Klint und das wilde Zeichnen (Hilma af Klint and Wild Drawing) with works by the artist Hilma af Klint that have never before been shown publicly. The exhibition was originally planned for the period from March 17 to April 11, 2020.
Stockholm, November 1906: Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is 44 years old when she turns her life upside down. She turns away from the academic painting in which she was trained and begins to work abstractly – in ever larger formats. In the following months she creates numerous series, including the cycle “The Ten Greatest”, whose paintings measure more than three meters in height. Kandinsky’s, Malevich’s, or Mondrian’s experiments with non-representational painting were still a long way off, when Hilma af Klint noted in her notebook: “The attempts I have made […] will astonish mankind. Her prediction came true not later than 2018, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opened a major retrospective of her work: the show attracted more than 600,000 visitors and became the most successful exhibition in the museum’s history.
Grisebach is pleased to present Julia Voss’ biography „Die Menschheit in Erstaunen versetzen: Hilma af Klint, Leben und Werk“ (S. Fischer Verlag) a selection of works by the Swedish painter, together with drawings and documents from the private archive Monica von Rosen/EWF.
For the first time in Germany, the only remaining self-portrait that Hilma af Klint painted of herself will be shown: The artist presents herself on the undated painting against a blue background, in a long white robe. This painting is supplemented by ten other works by the painter which have never been shown in public before: hand-coloured photographs which reproduce the series “The Ten Greatest” in miniature format. Hilma af Klint probably edited these photographs in the early 1920s, when she was trying to make her work, which she herself described as “groundbreaking”, accessible to a wider public. Subsequently, she had all 193 works taken between 1906 and 1915 photographed. In a second step, she colored these photographs or reproduced them in additional watercolors and pasted them into bound albums. With this life’s work en miniature, she created a “museum in a suitcase” with which she travelled to Dornach, Amsterdam and London.
Hilma af Klint. Studien zu „Gemälde für den Tempel”. Undatiert. Kolorierte Fotografien auf Pappe. 10 x 15 cm © Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk, @hilmaafklintofficial
At the same time, the exhibition takes a look at the prehistory and environment of Hilma af Klint’s work: she took part in her first seances at the age of seventeen. Among the sponsors of the young Hilma af Klint was Bertha Valerius (1824-1895), a painter and photographer who held spiritual sessions as a medium in Stockholm. As a young artist Hilma af Klint was in the circle of Huldine Beamish (1836-1892), whose guests included the writer August Strindberg.
The old orders were suspended during these séances: the living meet the dead, women become men and vice versa, past and future are shifted into the present, and the styles in which pencil on paper is drawn explode.
The exhibition was curated by Julia Voss and Anna Ballestrem.
Re-open: “Hilma af Klint and Wild Drawing” with never before publicly shown works by the artist is now open. During the Corona closing Grisebach made the exhibition visible and tangible on the website and social media. Among other things, the film of the exhibition integrated here was produced and live talks and interviews with experts from all over the world were presented, including the following conversation between Julia Voss and Rudolf Zwirner about Hilma af Klint. Grisebach is very pleased to be able to make this special show accessible again.
Exhibition period: Monday, 4th May to Friday, 15th May 2020
The exhibition will be closed on 8 May (public holiday in Berlin).
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Exhibition Hilma af Klint und das wilde Zeichnen – Grisebach – Contemporary Art Berlin | ART at Berlin
