In the 1890s, Hilma af Klint began meeting regularly with a group of female artists who together became known as “The Five”. The Five practiced various forms of spiritualism, believing they could communicate with a higher consciousness. Af Klint thought herself directed by this otherworldly force to create a group of paintings called The Ten Largest for “The Temple”, an entity never wholly defined or understood. Standing at a colossal 10 feet high and 8 feet wide, each painting in the series represents a different phase of life from early childhood to old age.
No. 3 depicts the transitional period of youth. Tonally, the series moves through a clear cycle of stylistic progression. While the early childhood works appear rather cellular with an emphasis on biological forms, youth is bright and dynamic. With swirling movement and colorful clusters of organic shapes, No. 3 is less diagrammatic than the more meditative, No. 7, Adulthood. Here, youth flourishes in a state of flux. Stylistically unbound by the artistic conventions of the time, No. 3 is one of the first examples of abstract art. We’re excited to add No. 3 to the mix because it fleshes out more of the astonishingly considered, idiosyncratic ways af Klint communicated via the conduit of her paintbrush. No. 3 is less diagrammatic than No. 7, with just a localized appearance of letterforms and no roman numerals. Its bright orange background seems to swell like a full vein, churning with colorful circular shapes and the snail-shell spirals and swirls af Klint often used to signify growth, or evolution of a metaphysical flavor. Whereas No. 7 incorporates some more established-feeling elements, No. 3 is very much in flux ... Read more on the blog + an excerpt from Christine Burgin's Hilma af Klint: Notes and Methods
+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available
Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.
Medium:
Museo Portfolio Rag
Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 10
14"x11" | edition of 250
20"x16" | edition of 50
24"x20" | edition of 10
40"x30" | edition of 5
