The Swan, No. 1, Group IX/SUW by Hilma af Klint
8"x8" ($40) | 11"x11" ($85) | 16"x16" ($275) | 20"x20" ($675) | 30"x30" ($1,950)
We are thrilled to introduce our newest edition: Hilma af Klint's The Swan, No. 1, Group IX/SUW. And we're doubly thrilled that Julia Voss, author of the definitive Hilma af Klint: A Biography (University of Chicago Press, 2022) penned words for us discussing the deep symbolism behind the piece, which is as apt today as it was in 1915:
"When the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint began her series The Swan in September 1914 in Stockholm, the First World War had broken out. Af Klint was convinced that materialism and nationalism had plunged the world into violence and chaos. A spiritual change was needed. A new way of thinking and feeling had to develop. Her series opened up a doorway. Spirit had to overcome black and white thinking.
This is what happens on the canvases. Af Klint introduces two swans, which are considered divine messengers in Hinduism. Their beaks touch. They are about to transform. For the artist, overcoming duality was not a philosophical thought experiment, but rather a lived experience. She did not believe in the division of sexes. She had male alter egos and was part of a community of women.
Af Klint was convinced that the mind had the power to bring about change. She did not believe in the cult of strength and violence that was widespread in her times. In her notebooks she wrote that one day there might be a gender that would carry change forward 'on its weak shoulders'."
— Julia Voss
More work by Hilma af Klint:
