Hilma af Klint, the Swedish abstract painter and mystic whose paintings are considered among the first major abstract works in Western art history will have a selection of her botanical drawings on display at MOMA this May. She combined detailed renderings of plants with enigmatic abstract diagrams – a sunflower paired with concentric circles, a narcissus crowned by a pinwheel of primary colors, and tree blossoms accompanied by checkerboards of dots and strokes. She sought to reveal, in her words, “what stands behind the flowers,” reflecting her belief that studying nature uncovers truths about the human condition.
Born 26 October 1862 Solna, Sweden, no birth time, she was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at twenty and gained recognition for her landscapes, botanical drawings, and portraits. Her conventional painting became the source of her income, but her ‘life’s work’ remained a separate practice. She belonged to a group called “The Five”, a circle of women inspired by Theosophy. Her paintings were a visual representation of complex spiritual ideas and a considerable body of her work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian.
She had an intense Scorpio Sun and Mercury in a deep-thinking opposition to Pluto in Taurus. The spiritual dimension of her life began to develop in 1880 when her younger sister Hermina died and it was at this time that her interest in abstraction, symbolism and spiritism developed. At that point tr Neptune in Taurus was conjunct her Pluto which has strong associations with the supernatural and paranormal.
She also had an upfront Mars in Aries conjunct Neptune opposition Saturn – disciplined, hard-edged, creative. Her Sagittarius Moon may have been opposition Uranus.
Georgiana Houghton, 20 April 1814, Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, who predates Klint, was another artist and spiritualist medium who produced her work at seances. She developed a completely abstract style, at least 40 years before Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. She did not depict objects of the natural world but what she described as a spiritual experience. She described her paintings as a system of “sacred symbolism,” in which each formal element carried a unique meaning.
She was an Aries/Taurus Sun, maybe New Moon, square Saturn in Aquarius. Her Pluto conjunct Venus in Pisces was amplified being the focal point of Mars opposition Neptune. Ultra-determined she would arouse resistance to her ideas which would be ahead of their time with such a Pluto.
Pity there are no birth times. Both are likely to have had strong 8th house placings given their interests in the world beyond.
The post Hilma af Klint & Georgiana Houghton – a world beyond first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
