Hilma af Klint — Ellie + Art

When I returned from maternity leave last year, I checked in with my students individually to see how they are doing and find out what they wanted to learn for the second semester of the school year. Many students reported to me a list of skills they wanted to learn. A few of the girls asked for something that surprised me: they wanted to learn how to paint abstractly. They pointed to my paintings on the wall as an example.

I planned out the coming months, but abstract art did not make it in the schedule. When I tried to think of how to teach what I paint everyday, I would get stuck. I wasn’t even sure where the shapes and colors in my work what coming from and how to dissect what I do into teachable parts. All I knew is that I was so in love with painting ever since I started painting abstractly. What was inside of me and what I was creating felt aligned. It was an amazing feeling. Isn’t that ultimately what I want for my students?

Now let’s travel back to 2013. I love bringing home old Art Forum magazines from the Klein to browse through. On one day, I came across a tiny article about an artist, Hilma af Klint. When I saw her work, it looked just like my work. I put the article on the fridge and vowed to research her. Thank goodness I did, because Hilma’s life the perfect case study for the foundations of abstract art. My proposal for the Paternotte Travel Faculty Grant came from her story. I would go to Hilma’s homeland to learn what inspired her to work abstractly and what inspires current abstract artists in Sweden.

When Hilma af Klint was growing up her artistic talents were clear from her days at the School for Girls in Sweden. I already like her! Her family arranged for her to attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She excelled there in the traditional techniques of the times and was awarded a prized studio space. After she finished school, she was able to pay her living by painting in a naturalistic style. While creating this work, Hilma began to work secretly on a completely new series. Based off of her automatic drawings, her love of science, and her inner spiritual life, she started to develop her own visual language in which shapes and colors had meanings. This divergence developed into 26,000 pages of sketchbook and over 1,000 paintings.

Where Hilma went there was no road map. No one was creating abstract work at this time. Each day, she would buy eggs, paste together her paper into massive surfaces measuring up to 12’ x 15’, and mix her tempera paint, and then work. It is undeniable that she was a brave woman, driven by her conviction; her belief that what she was doing was important. This story led me to the question that framed my conversations with every person I met: How do artists form the conviction they need to create? I knew that I am suppose to be unpacking abstract art, but instead the question of the origins of abstract art naturally led to this question. This is the question that made people’s eye light up. This is the question that the af Klint family asks all the time. And so I thought, if I can try and answer this, then maybe I can teach it.

Swedes are very friendly and they love talking about art. I was able to quickly make connections with curators, gallerists, artists, and the af Klint foundation in Stockholm. We used Hilma as a spring board for conversations about art. The more I learned about Hilma, the more I became interested in her daily habits. As the daughter of a nautical map maker, she made her work in a very disciplined way. To me, this is a big piece of her puzzle. I organized her artistic life into 6 components. See diagram. Inspired by this very concrete plan, I organized my life in Stockholm in this way. I kept a sketchbook, I met with groups of artists, I set up a studio in my rented apartment, I visited galleries and museums, and I worked. I know it sounds simple, but it worked! This structure of planning my time, gave me purpose, drove me forward, and helped me find conviction in what I was doing.

From this same format, I decided to frame my teaching for this year in this way. How can I support these 6 elements of the student’s artistic lives at MHS? Again, it is so simple, but so effective. I quickly came up with dozens of innovations I could make to my plan for the year. From individualized sketchbook assignments to giving upper level students mini-studios, I am so excited to see what these shifts can do to foster the student’s work and conviction.

Next, I wanted to take another look at abstract art. This is where the art scene of Stockholm really helped me. I saw so much art that I started to organize it into categories. Each of the artists I talked to arrived at abstract art from different approaches and for different reasons. See diagram. I thought about how I stumbled upon my current painting style when I was trying new things one day in the Klein after class. It was an “ah ha moment” for me and I knew I should build this into a series. Many Swedish artists also mentioned this moment too. They are always making, even when they don’t know where it’s going, and then when they create something that interests them, they pause and dive deeper. So I think with the students, I can offer them a variety of approaches to abstraction and then help them notice when they arrive at something interesting. The moments between “interesting” can be scary and with abstract art it can be even less clear where you are going. But strategies for dealing with this time can be taught too. See diagram. Following my research during the E.E. Ford Seminar at Miss Hall’s, I have been helping students expect and even look forward to these moments of not knowing. Together we have developed a language of talking about artistic process and are able to support each other in a safe and inspiring way.

So I can guide the students in techniques of making abstract art, but how I can teach them how to put themselves into it. Hilma explains “At this moment, I have the knowledge that I am an atom in the universe that has access to infinite possibilities of development. These possibilities of knowledge I want to gradually reveal.” And so the answer is that this takes time, there is no road map to knowing your artistic self or furthermore yourself. But I know that art is one of the greatest tools for learning more about yourself and the Klein is the perfect place to embark on this journey.

A few take aways:

Find a hero
Keep a journal/sketchbook to celebrate your growth
Ask the students what they want to learn
Always keep inspiration on your fridge