For the First time in Three Decades – an Abstract Work by Hilma af Klint at Auction
For the first time in more than 30 years, an abstract work by Hilma af Klint is going up for auction. It’s a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to acquire a work like this, says Louise Wrede of Bukowskis Auction House in Stockholm.
During her lifetime, Hilma af Klint remained largely outside the established art scene, while developing a distinctive abstract visual language. Her artistic practice emerged at the intersection of spirituality, natural science, philosophy and artistic form, where geometric shapes, symbols and fields of colour came to convey ideas beyond the figurative.
The artist’s non-figurative legacy is preserved and administered by the Hilma af Klint Foundation (Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk), and her abstract paintings have consequently remained almost entirely beyond the reach of the public art market – only two abstract paintings by af Klint have previously been sold at auction. The painting offered at auction, “Ser III No. 5”, was acquired by a private collector in 1995, following the foundation’s sale of a small number of works in the early 1990s. Since then, the painting has remained within the same family.
The appearance on the open market of an abstract work of such significance is an exceptional event, offering collectors worldwide a rare opportunity to acquire a work by an artist who today holds a central place in the history of early abstraction.
Main Image: Hilma af Klint, "Ser III No. 5". Dated D. 18/1 1920. Oil and graphite on canvas 38,5 x 29 cm.