Known in her lifetime as a painter of landscapes and portraits, it was not until 1986 and their inclusion in The Spiritual in Art at LACMA, Los Angeles, that Hilma af Klint’s unprecedented abstract paintings, many made under angelic instruction, came to wider attention. In the next three years, Secret Pictures by Hilma af Klint was organized by Nordisk Konstcentrum, Helsinki, before traveling to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm presented Hilma af Klint–Occult Painter and Abstract Pioneer; and Liljevalchs Konsthall showed the entire cycle of “The Paintings for the Temple.” Major surveys at the Moderna Museet (2013) and at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018) broke visitor records and established af Klint as one of the most important—and belatedly most popular—artists in the history of modern art.
