Title of Project
Gateway into The Abyss: Unlocking the Transcending Realms and Enlightened Truth Through Exploration of Occult Iconography in Hilma Af Klint’s The Swan No.24
Division
Arts
Course or Program
HAVC 100A
Description / Abstract
Hilma Af Klint was a unique artist who worked during the early 20th century in Stockholm, Sweden. Klint is often regarded as a groundbreaking feminist artist whose abstract works were over shadowed due to the 20th century art world’s patriarchal hierarchy. While to a certain degree, this is plausible conclusion, this is more a modern construct. Klint was not an abstract feminist but a spiritual medium and devoted student of the occult. Her fascination with the spiritual realm is what lead her to create her greatest works of art the paintings for The Temple Series. Klint’s use of occult symbolism and iconography dominates her work especially in “The Swan No.24”. Through careful visual analysis of “The Swan No. 24” this paper will analyze and decipher Klint’s code of spiritual transcendence. “The Swan No. 24” offers the viewer a spiritual portal or gateway to transcend reality. Klint offers us the keys and methods to unlock enlightenment through the convergence of the natural and spiritual world by using the conduit of science.
