Hilma Af Klint was a mystic and a painter, who created an incredible body of "abstract" work inspired by the Spiritist tradition coming out of the 19th century inspired by the Theosophical movement founded by Helen Blavatsky, who had a huge influence on artists and writers of the late 19th and 20th century, especially artists that were part of the early 20th century abstract movement. More on that in a lecture by Gertrud Sandqvist here, including the influence of Bhuddist thought and Darwin!
As I begin to realize the connections between abstract art, spiritualism, the Bauhaus, design, and now design thinking and the increasing importance of visualization in our 21st century, making visual language accessible to the greatest number begins to make sense as another way of empowering us to not only think and communicate but also to explore our "in-spiration"...originally meaning to "breathe in".
"Her painting friends thought they were inappropriate." (from her journals).
Installation, Moderna Museet, "Hilma Af Klint, A Pionner of Abstraction"
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