The Swan No II Group 9 1914
I was taken to a new level of thought and inspiration by the beauty and sensitivity of Hilma af Klint’s art! I am grateful that I got to see her work at the Guggenheim NY [April 20, 2019]. Hilma’s early works show her tremendous skill and craft in illustration. It is her later works that bring out her inner depth – the depth that is so hard to communicate on a verbal level and it is that depth we want to reveal but our inner language could be complex to understand. Hilma is tapping into parallel universes and takes us -the audience on a quantum journey. Her symbolism is otherworldly and communicates on many levels, fields, and dimensions.
When looking at her art at first it appears linear, then it draws you in if you allow yourself to be pulled in, the more you realize it’s multidimensional. She is passionate about boxes that twist and turn. One moment you are looking straight on but as you make your way through her landscapes the box transforms – you are looking top to bottom, left to right this transformation is her walkway into her soul and into the other worlds she is allowed to open for us
The Swan
to get a preview -the soft colors convince us that we are not to be afraid.
In several of her pieces, she is playing with the notions of parallel worlds. The white swan/black swan are dimensions that communicate differences and similarities in space and time. The swan and spiral are icons she repeats over and over again. The spiral is the slingshot that takes us to the very core of existence as we look inward we gaze out to pick a new path to travel through. Isn’t this the spiritual inspiration for quantum physics? I think Hilma af Klint has a great deal of influence on modern art and the science of quantum physics. Erwin Schrodinger was born 25 years after Klint. Hilma teaches us to look at the world from many possibilities – her philosophy gives us the opportunity to explore and learn more about who we are, why we are here and how we fit into this world and the world beyond. She realized that she would be speaking to many of us long after she died. She planned which of her art she would allow us to see in a world that is so very different from the world she came from – but her art speaks to me, this futurist.
The Swan, No. 06, Group IX/SUW
I can’t begin to interpret her personal meaning to these symbols. She woke something in me that has been in a coma for the past several years, that awakening caused me to see the shapes, colors, multi-dimensions, many emotions, and paths available to me but have buried because I’ve been afraid to look beyond. When I looked at Hilma af Klint’s art I am reminded of my own and back at my vision of a quantum world that I put forth in my whimsical book, The Other Side of The Box. This is when I remember who I was, who I am and who I will become, so my journey begins again and I’m not alone.
Special thanks to my dear friend Kim Buchheit lead me to the discovery of the art of Hilma af Klint.
The Other Side of the Box – I’m not alone – Tery Spataro