Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint was born on October 26, 1862, at Karlberg Palace, Solna, into an aristocratic naval family. One of the first women to graduate from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, she worked initially as an accomplished botanical illustrator and figurative painter.

In 1896, af Klint and four female friends formed De Fem ('The Five'), conducting spiritual séances and automatic drawing. In 1906—years ahead of Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian—she began The Paintings for the Temple (1906–1915), creating 193 colossal, breathtaking canvases of biomorphic spirals, geometric diagrams, and radiant color coding the spiritual evolution of humanity. Convinced the world was not ready, she stipulated in her will that her works remain sealed for twenty years after her death. Her 2018 Guggenheim retrospective shattered museum attendance records worldwide.