Hilma af Klint - 'The Ten Largest' - Tate Modern

This post concerns the last room of the Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian exhibition at the Tate Modern; the finale. 

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The last room concerns Af Klint's most ambitious artworks. Probably her magnum opus: the colossal 'The Ten Largest'. She died in a traffic accident in Sweden aged 81. Today she is recognized as a pioneer of Western abstract art. However, even as late as the 1970s, when her paintings were gifted to the Stockholm museum, they declined the donation. Not untypical of most avant-garde artists.

Each painting is enormous, a veritable giant. They seek to capture the essence of childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. 

It seems af Klint was trying to "give the world a glimpse of the stages of life" through her perceptions of the spirit realm. She was supposed to have conducted séances - as a medium - and communicated to the spirits. She was even supposed to have received messages from the ethereal realm to create this devotional artwork. 

For me, I have little patience for this. I think she was either she was suffering from a mental illness or was taking part in occult quackery which, I think, has always been the plainest of lies and exploitation. But, perhaps I'm being too harsh. I know that Europe was awash with this sort of nonsense. France had Allan Kardec who convinced people he could commune with the dead through tables! And, we still have astrology in magazines and fortune-tellers (in this day-and-age!).

Nevertheless, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these paintings.

I think there is something fascinating and even moving in them. I loved the way the colour shifts from blue to orange to lilac and then the faintest of pinks. Even as we go through the adult years, the colour itself fades. It speaks to the power of colour to evoke our emotions.  Then, there is the movement, the flowing, the floating, the motion of each painting. They are filled with collisions and movements and swirls. Cells, atoms, flora, shells all seem to point to the harmony and interconnection of life. The latter paintings are the most moving. To me, I think there is a sense of calm and order and even wistfulness about them. 

This artwork is really wonderful and quite moving. 

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Childhood

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Youth

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Adult

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Old age