To start our discussion around the theme of TIME, today we bring the work of the artist Hilma af Klint, who created more than 150 paintings between the years 1906 and 1915. These paintings were called “The Paintings of the Temple” and consist mainly of images abstract and organic shapes inspired by the geometry of nature. Klint's work presents a world beyond the one we know; that transcends its current time and challenges the way we observe reality.
Klint envisioned a temple that would house the paintings and described it in one of his many diaries as a "round building, where visitors would ascend a spiral staircase on a spiritual journey". Hilma's description is extraordinary, as she describes the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, which would only be built decades later and would also be the host museum for her solo exhibition “Paintings for the Future” in 2018. Frank Lloyd Wright , the architect of the Guggenheim, created an untraditional place for non-objective art, and both he and Klint shared an affinity for the organic forms and spiritual symbolism surrounding the spiral. Both Wright's architectural vision and Klint's paintings were a break with tradition, offering a new approach to creative expression.
Klint's mysticism involves many interests in occultism, theosophy, spiritualism and scientific concepts. The paintings for the temple served as a testament to higher spirits and the artist spent nearly a decade working on them. His abstract paintings changed the course of art history and posed the question: what is the role of time in the esoteric process of making art?
How can artists manipulate the passage of time through their practices?