Hilma af Klint: Artist and Visionary | National Gallery of Ireland
Exhibitions
Hilma Av Klint is widely recognized as one of Europe's most important abstract painters and one of Sweden's most celebrated modern artists. This exhibition, presented in collaboration with the Hilma Av Klint Foundation, showcases her oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors, marking the first major exhibition of Av Klint's work in Ireland. Av Klint's art is deeply influenced by spirituality and her explorations of the Rosicrucians, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. Like many of her contemporaries, she sought to understand and interpret the modern world. Drawing inspiration from nature, science, and religion, Av Klint developed a visionary style of abstract painting—full of tension in emotion, spirit, and color. Although portraiture and illustration brought in income for Hilma Av Klint, her spiritual paintings—those considered “great works”—were rarely exhibited outside her circle of friends and family. A large portion of her work remained sealed away until the 1980s, and remained largely unknown outside of Sweden. This exhibition aims to explore the era, place, and context that shaped her unique artistic vision. It will feature important spiritual works such as *The Swan* (1914–1915) and *Altarpiece* (1915), as well as botanical studies, early portraits, and landscapes, some of which have never been publicly exhibited before.
