Taste
Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondriaan: Forms of Life
After successful solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim in New York and various European museums, Hilma af Klint's work will soon move to the Netherlands. From October 7, the creations of the artist and contemporary Piet Mondriaan can be admired in Kunstmuseum The Hague.
Image: Hilma af Klint, The Evolution, The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series, Group VI, No. 14, 1908, Courtesy The Hilma af Klint Foundation
After several exhibitions abroad, Kunstmuseum Den Haag thought it was high time to bring Hilma af Klint's work back to the museum for the first time since 1986. Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondriaan: Forms of Life Not only does the public get to know her work better, the exhibition also offers a fresh look at Mondrian, who pursued the same thing with his work until his death.
Although the two artists both painted landscapes in the beginning, the oeuvre of Mondriaan and af Klint is otherwise not similar. Yet according to experts, the same impulses underlie it. Spirituality, scientific developments, an inner urge to look beyond the immediately visible; this plays a major role for both artists. Separately and in their own unique way, looking for abstraction in a changing world. This means that Mondriaan and af Klint occupy an important place in art history.
Evolution
According to the museum, the exhibition and the accompanying publication – which will also be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog – are based on new research. For example, it was investigated how the concept of evolution is a central theme in the work of both Af Klint and Mondriaan, but also how their unique formal languages were inspired by new ways of looking at nature.
The exhibition also pays extensive attention to the interest of both artists in theosophy and anthroposophy and how these new philosophical movements tried to unite the scientific discoveries in physics and biology of that time with a spiritual life.
The exhibition can be admired in Kunstmuseum The Hague from October 7 to February 25, 2024.
