The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood

Hilma af Klint is a Swedish artist, she joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. While she presents landscape and portrait paintings, she secretly creates abstract works. His works are the first abstract works of art, without the influence of male artists, considered pioneers of abstract art such as Kandinsky.

The artist is sensitive to spiritualist ideas, and joins “De Fem” (The Five), a group of women who are interested in the paranormal and who organize spiritualism sessions. She begins the adventure of an art which she qualifies as spiritual, and which would be realized “through her”. Inspired by esoteric thoughts, the patterns of the circle and the oval sound recurring, generating life at the center of all existence. Her work revolves around symbols, letters and words, where she seeks a symmetrical reciprocity, plagued by dualities, good and evil, masculine and feminine, or even the earthly and the spiritual.

In “The Ten Largest, Childhood” she translates circle shapes, spirits, and creates a painting of spiritualism. She articulates circles inside which she will add shapes, like floral motifs here. She will question her work throughout her life, seeking to understand the mysteries of her art, reflections that she will transcribe in more than 50 study notebooks. A pioneer in this field, her abstract work would be recognized a decade later.