Christina here with a movie review, which is something the Wenches thought we would try occasionally this year if we came across one we would really like to recommend. As the film in question is biographical, I have combined it with information about the subject of the movie, who was a real person.
I have to admit I don’t often go to the cinema to see Oscar-worthy films because I usually find them either boring or too sad. (I’m very shallow in my movie choices!). It has always seemed to me that the more heart-wrenching the story, the more Oscars it gets. And I don’t handle sad endings well. However, a little while ago I let my neighbour drag me along to see a film called Hilma. It’s a true story about a Swedish artist called Hilma af Klint, and she was more or less unknown until fairly recently.
Hilma was born in 1862, the daughter of a naval commander. She and her family spent their summers on the idyllic island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren, west of Stockholm. Here she became inspired by her surroundings and all the beautiful shapes found in nature. She loved botany and was interested in science and mathematics, but it was clear early on that she was brilliant at drawing. The family moved to Stockholm, where she studied landscape painting and portraiture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. When she graduated, she was given a scholarship which gave her the use of a studio. She supported herself by painting landscapes, portraits and botanical drawings, but that wasn’t really the type of art she was truly interested in.
Judging by the movie, I’d say she was somewhat mentally disturbed, or at least very different in her thinking throughout her life. Her younger sister Hermina, with whom she had been very close, died when Hilma was in her late teens and this tragedy affected her deeply. I think it unhinged her slightly. Hermina’s death sparked an interest in spiritualism, and she seems to have spent a lot of time trying to contact her sister via spiritual mediums. She started to read about theosophy (see explanation below), and became obsessed with the works of Rudolf Steiner, who had his own theories about the Arts and other subjects. When he came to Stockholm to give a lecture, she was introduced to him, and later met with him again in Switzerland. She desperately wanted him to like and understand her paintings, but apparently he wasn’t very impressed. That crushed her, and she was so upset that she stopped painting for several years.
(Theosophy, according to Wikipedia, “teaches that the purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation and says that the human soul undergoes reincarnation upon bodily death according to a process of karma. It promotes values of universal brotherhood and social improvement, although it does not stipulate particular ethical codes.”)
Hilma joined a group of women artists (later called “The Five”) who shared her beliefs and helped her. They seem to have been early feminists, and if the movie is to be believed, Hilma was also in a relationship with one of them for many years. These women often held seances and Hilma claimed she was “told” by the spirits what to paint. Sometimes they even guided her hand, literally, according to her. These works of art were compositions that were supposed to represent spiritual ideas. A lot of them were geometric shapes, like spirals and petals. She wanted to build a ’Temple’ to hang them in, in the shape of a spiral, or a snail’s shell. At the time no one wanted to know and didn’t want to give her the money for this, which frustrated her.
She painted a collection of 193 abstract paintings which were intended for the ‘Temple’. Some of them were very large and represent the different phases of life. She continued to be inspired by the spiritual, and added symbols, letters and words. Many of her paintings are symmetrical shapes, and she used colours to represent various things, for example blue was the female spirit, yellow the male. She is considered to be the one of the first artists to paint abstract works. Others like Kandinsky and Mondrian came after her, which means she was a pioneer of this style. It is possible they were influenced by some of her paintings.
The ’spiritual guidance’ eventually came to an end, but she carried on painting abstract motifs for the rest of her life. She continued to try to make sense of her thoughts, and jotted these down in more than 150 notebooks. Later in life, she lived on another island in Lake Mälaren called Munsö, where she seems to have finally built a studio where her paintings could be displayed.
She died in 1944, aged almost 82, after a traffic accident, leaving a vast collection of paintings and diaries to her nephew, Erik af Klint. However, disillusioned at her death, she decreed that her paintings were to be hidden away for 20 years. She didn’t think the world would be ready to see or understand her art until then. When they were finally unearthed again, they were a sensation.
I can’t say that I like them because I really don’t – I’m not a fan of modern art – but I was greatly moved by her story. The film itself is a masterpiece of filmmaking directed by Lasse Hallström and starring his wife and daughter. The settings are stunning, shot in the Stockholm archipelago where the summer light is fantastic. And the old towns and costumes depicted in the movie are recreated in an elaborate and authentic way. Ultimately, one can see it as a sad tale of a woman who didn’t manage to achieve her dreams during her lifetime, but at the same time, she did triumph in the end. I believe she now has the recognition she deserved.
Definitely worth a look if you like that sort of film or even if, like me, you usually don’t!
Have you heard of Hilma – seen the film or attended an exhibition of her work? And are there other artists whose work you feel has been undervalued?
[All photos from Wikimedia Commons]