Painting Transcendence

ABSTRACT

Marybeth Carter reviews the first extensive US solo exhibition of Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, with the cooperation of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, in Stockholm, Sweden. af Klint was a contemporary of C. G. Jung, and her works contain motifs and images that invoke a sense of familiarity due to their similarity to those found in The Red Book. In addition, they convey her interest and participation, like that of Jung, in the seances and spiritualism of the time.

Key Words:

• art
• automatic drawing
• C. G. Jung
• Hilma af Klint
• individuation
• Jungian psychology
• psychoid
• seances
• spiritualism
• theosophy

NOTE

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Notes

1. Hilma af Klint, from notebook HaK556, entered on February 10, 1908, https://www.hilmaafklint.se.

^2. “Hilma af Klint: Swedish Painter,” The Art Story, https://m.theartstory.org/artist-af-klint-hilma.htm.

^3. Johan af Klint and Hedvig Ersman, “Inspiration and Influence: The Spiritual Journal of Hilma af Klint,” Checklist, October 11, 2018, https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/inspiration-and-influence-the-spiritual-journey-of-artist-hilma-af-klint.

^4. The Spiritual in Art—Abstract Paintings 1890–1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), https://www.hilmaafklint.se.

^5. “Jung and Mandala,” Carl Jung Resources, https://www.carl-jung.net/mandala.html.

^6. Axiom of Maria, Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_Maria.

^7. “Hilma af Klint: Swedish Painter,” The Art Story, https://m.theartstory.org/artist-af-klint-hilma.htm.

^8. Ibid.

^9. “About Hilma af Klint,” Hilma af Klint, https://www.hilmaafklint.se/about-hilma-af-klint.

^10. “Hilma af Klint: Swedish Painter,” The Art Story, https://m.theartstory.org/artist-af-klint-hilma.htm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marybeth Carter

MARYBETH CARTER, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a candidate in the analyst training program at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. She has a degree in religious studies from Indiana University and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is an adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Antioch University. She has a special interest in the creative arts and transcendent states. Marybeth has had an extensive career in nonprofit leadership as well as many publications in the victim and trauma services field. Correspondence: [email protected].