Author Description

At the turn of the century, Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) created a body of work that left visible reality behind, exploring the radical possibilities of abstraction years before Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, or Piet Mondrian, acknowledged fathers of twentieth-century abstraction. Like many of her contemporaries, af Klint was interested in the invisible relationships that scientists at the turn of the century were discovering shape the world. She strongly believed in a spiritual dimension to the universe and devoted her life to an exploration of this realm. Hilma af Klint's process of investigation took many forms and drew on systems and symbols outside the traditional language of art. Notes and Methods traces the origins of her powerful abstract work. Included are the mediumistic drawings she created with the group of women who called themselves The Five; Flowers, Mosses, and Lichens, a spiritual explication of the plant world; and the Blue Books, in which af Klint catalogued her most important body of work, The Paintings for the Temple. Notes and Methods is the first extensive English translation of the writings of Hilma af Klint. In addition to translations of all notebooks reproduced, Notes and Methods also includes Letters and Words Pertaining to Works by Hilma af Klint, an invaluable guide to the meaning behind the work, compiled by Hilma af Klint herself--Page [4] of cover.