Hilma af Klint – The Age of Manna The ten greatest no 7 (1907)

Exhibition poster from 2014, featuring the work, Mannaåldern, De tio største, no 7 , (1907), by the Swedish artist, Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), which Louisiana exhibited in 2014. Klint never showed her abstract works publicly during her lifetime , but only her figurative ones. “I had no idea what the pictures were supposed to represent. Still, I worked quickly and safely, without changing a single brushstroke," explained Hilma af Klint in her notes and diaries.

Hilma af Klint has not taken up much space in art history, although she can be listed as one of the pioneers of abstract art. Her extensive work is created in a spiritual space inspired by e.g. theosophical and anthroposophical currents, where she links inner experience and symbolic language.

The story of the artist is fascinating and unknown to most. It's a story about a female artist on the edge of the established canon. She belongs to the first generation of academy-educated women in Europe. She was educated in Stockholm in naturalistic portrait and landscape painting. Hilma af Klint's pictorial universe is visually strong, colour-experimental and rich in symbols.