The Swan Series by Hilma af Klint

The Swan, No. 1
Source: Guggenheim Museum

I have to admit that understanding and interpreting the work of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is above my paygrade. Her work is esoteric—to put it simply—and contains a complex set of symbols and codes that can be explained only after careful study of her work and writings.

Although af Klint began her artistic career painting traditional, figurative scenes such as landscapes, in the early twentieth century she adopted a totally new artistic style as a result of her recent experiences with Spiritualism. af Klint began attending seances as a teenager, and, as she grew older, af Klint became a member of a group of women interested in Spiritualism called The Five. These women attended seances regularly and made regular contact with six different spirits. These spirits gave them messages and instructions, including a commission to create a temple filled with paintings. The purpose of the temple is rather unclear to me; however, the instructions must have been fairly detailed because af Klint went on to create nearly two hundred paintings for this project. Simply put, these pieces are extraordinary and striking. Although most students of art will tell you that Wassily Kandinsky is the founder of the modern abstract painting movement, af Klint was actually the first painter of the modern, Western abstractist movement. (I include these specifications because abstract art has existed throughout human history in a number of different societies and cultures; it’s not a new thing). 

The Swan, No. 15
Source: Guggenheim Museum

Although I find most of her paintings to be powerful and interesting, af Klint’s swan series (Group IX/SUW) particularly fascinates me. Over the course of twenty-four paintings, af Klint plays with the shapes and colors that constitute the swan. The first painting in the series depicts two swans that are mirrored in different color schemes. The colors blue and yellow feature prominently here; this is significant because af Klint used blue to symbolize female energy and yellow to represent male energy. Thus, the paintings explore the relationship between these two sexes while also examining the push and pull of opposites and the complementary or contradictory energy they create. 

The Swan, No. 9
Source: Guggenheim Museum

Throughout the series, af Klint breaks the swans down into a series of colors and shapes that she uses to explore the idea of contradiction, transition, and opposition. The Guggenheim Museum—which owns several pieces of the swan series—also notes that “in alchemy, the swan represents the union of opposites necessary for the creation of what is known as the philosopher’s stone, a substance believed to be capable of turning base metals into gold. Here, af Klint’s black-and-white palette underscores the dualities of light and dark, male and female, life and death.” The swan is thus a powerful and magical symbol that is entirely appropriate for af Klint’s series. 

The Swan, No. 17
Source: The New Yorker

The swan series was created after af Klint completed her work for the spirit temple, and it feels far more deliberate and intentional than her earlier work. Here, af Klint takes her search for spiritual enlightenment a step further, seeking to interrogate the forces that shape human experience in a thoughtful and rational way. The result is the beautiful and mysterious swan series, one of the most unique artistic treasures in human history.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.