Eldslågor (Flames)

Signed and dated H. af Klint 18/7 - 1930.

Between 1920 and 1930, Hilma af Klint spent a long period in Dornach, Switzerland, where Austrian architect, social reformer, occultist, esotericist and claimed clairvoyant Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) had established the Goetheanum; the international centre of the anthroposophical movement. This temple-like building, a wooden dome that contained a stage for performances and a large auditorium, reached completion in the autumn of 1920, the time of af Klint’s first visit.

Although Steiner’s lectures and books had been an important inspiration for more than a decade, it wasn’t until this autumn that she joined the Anthroposophical Society. She remained a member for the rest of her life, studying anthroposophy and attending many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, until his death in 1925. The death of Steiner, and the impact it probably had on af Klint, could potentially explain why there are no preserved paintings or notes by Hilma dating from the period 1925 – 1930.

Having studied anthroposophical literature, af Klint changed her approach, and after her first visit in Dornach she stopped painting for a year, subsequently giving up geometric abstraction. After this hiatus, she painted predominantly in watercolours and strived to allow the colours to generate the subject matter. In the foreword to Hilma af Klint. Catalogue Raisonné. Late watercolours 1922 – 1941 (volume 6), the Editors write:

At the Goetheanum, she participated in the rich cultural life of the new centre, and regularly attended Steiner’s lectures. She studied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory of Colours, an important starting point for Steiner’s lecture series on the nature of colour, given in the early 1920s. From 1922 onward, af Klint used the wet-on-wet watercolour technique developed by Steiner and his circle. At the age of 60, she thus radically changed her way of working as an artist again. Inspired by Steiner’s teachings, she explored how forms arise out of the various colours and how we can penetrate the spiritual essence of living beings through a special kind of contemplation.

According to Rudolf Steiner, the goal of Anthroposophy was for humankind to be seen in relation to the transcendental. Under the influence of his views, af Klint stopped creating geometric abstractions in favour of portraying spiritual contexts directly in the medium of watercolours. Once again (as mentioned above), and this time in her sixties, she was prepared to change her way of working. Iris Müller–Westermann writes (in [Eds.] Iris Müller–Westermann & Milena Högsberg, Hilma af Klint. Artist. Researcher. Medium, exhibition catalogue, Moderna Museet, Malmö, 2020):

She was not afraid of questioning entrenched patterns of belief in her work, nor did she hesitate to go her own way. Her open-mindedness, coupled with her curiosity, runs like a golden thread throughout her entire oeuvre, which strove to provide knowledge and understanding of greater contexts. Af Klints work ties in with a subject that has been important for the people and art of all cultures: trying to understand the world and one’s own role in it.

The remarkable Flames is one of only three watercolours on paper, that were executed during the month of July, 1930. This, more or less, abstract composition, with a faint hint of a burning heart in the foreground, appears to be completely unique in af Klint’s oeuvre. The only other work coming remotely close being Cadmium no. 2, terra di Siena (burnt), ultramarine (23 October 1931, watercolour on paper, 35 x 26 cm, p. 197 in Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 7, HaK796) from the following year. Dated 18/7 1930, the watercolour was painted fairly shortly after returning from her ninth, and final, trip (together with Thomasine Andersson) to Dornach from middle of April until the beginning of May.

Provenance
Elsa and Magda Jerud, Malmö, Sweden (a gift from Hilma af Klint in the early 1930s).
Private collection, Stockholm (by descent).
Bukowskis, Stockholm, Bukowskis moderna svensk-franska konstauktioner, 18 – 20 May 1988, lot 33.
Private collection, Stockholm (acquired at the above sale).
CFHILL, Stockholm, Ten by Ten, 29 April – 6 June 2020.
Firestorm Foundation.

Literature
(Eds.) Kurt Almqvist & Daniel Birnbaum, Hilma af Klint. Catalogue Raisonné. Late Watercolours 1922 – 1941(volume 6), 2021, listed p. 378 and illustrated full page in colour, p. 180.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation