Hilma af Klint is now regarded as a pioneer of abstract art. Her work from the early 20th century predates the first purely abstract paintings by Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich. Now, for the first time, af Klint’s works, some 1,600 in all, have been collected in a Catalogue Raisonné. Af Klint’s work should be seen and appreciated in the series of paintings often depicting specific themes and this ground-breaking publication, divided into seven volumes, allows for this. Throughout her life af Klint used research-oriented methods trying to understand the spiritual contexts of the world. She investigated plants and other objects in their geometrical form. Nature was perfect; we humans just needed to look at it more closely. This concept is investigated in Volume V.Produced with the permission of the Hilma af Klint Foundation and featuring introductions by Daniel Birnbaum and Kurt Almqvist, a separate slip cased edition containing all seven volumes will be available in autumn 2021.

Hilma af Klint was part of a group of female friends who called themselves ‘The Five’, which was active between 1896 and 1908. Together with Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson, af Klint had been a member of the ‘Edelweiss Society’ – a group that combined Christian ideas, Theosophy, and Spiritualism. The Five received messages from higher spirits that they called the High Masters, and during their seances they documented the messages in trance-like states with automatic writing and drawing. There are 15 sketchbooks from this period, and Bokförlaget Stolpe are now making three of them (S2 HaK 1515, S6 HaK 1519 and S13 HaK 1526) available in a reproduction edition. The sketchbooks will be sold together in a slipcase.Hilma af Klint, 1862–1944.Anna Cassel, 1860–1937.Cornelia Cederberg, 1854–1933.Sigrid Hedman, 1855–1922.Mathilda Nilsson, 1844–1923.

Axel Törneman (1880–1925) was a pioneer in modern Swedish art history, mostly noted for his monumental frescos in the Stockholm City Hall and the Swedish parliament building. Intense and headstrong, he pursued his own path, consciously choosing not to belong to any contemporary artistic group.This is the first biography of Axel Törneman. It includes all his bestknown works alongside a large number of easel paintings and drawings. With previously unpublished material such as photographs and drawings, the book paints the picture of an artist who constantly sought new motifs as well as techniques, and who despite a short and at times quite dramatic life was one of the most significant artists at the dawn of modernism in Sweden.Anita Theorell holds a PhD in Art History and is the author of several books on cultural history. She has done research on Axel Törneman since the 1960s.Bengt Wanselius is a photographer and picture editor who has received acclaim for several of his photography books.Translation: Anna Wohl

In the 1920s, Hilma af Klint spent extended periods in Dornach, Switzerland, where Rudolf Steiner had established an international centre for the Anthroposophical movement – the Goetheanum. At the Goetheanum, af Klint took part in the centre’s rich cultural life. Among other things, she studied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colours. In 1922, at the age of 60, she completely abandoned her geometrical way of working for the ‘wet on wet’ watercolour method that was inspired by Antroposophy and that Steiner and his circle had developed. An example of this is her series On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees from 1922. Most of the series presented in this, the sixth volume of Hilma af Klint’s catalogue raisonné, have no titles.

The two series presented in this volume are Hilma af Klint’s first major works after she completed The Paintings for the Temple. When she created Parsifal and The Atom, she still claimed that she was guided by spiritual leaders, but at the same time she appears to have experienced a new feeling of independence.The Parsifal series is inspired by the Arthurian legend and is usually interpreted as an exploration of inner spheres and different planes of consciousness, while The Atom seems to be a study of the universe’s spiritual structure. Hilma af Klint’s understanding of the concept of the atom is inspired by the Theosophical and Anthroposophical ideas that slumbering spirit is contained within all matter.

At an early age, Hilma af Klint developed an interest in spiritualism – a religious inclination and philosophical outlook that constituted an important part of the European Zeitgeist in the second half of the nineteenth century.Together with four other women she was part of the group The Five. The members of the group acted as mediums and believed that they received messages from the spirit world. In this first volume of Hilma af Klint’s catalogue raisonné, the fifteen sketchbooks they produced during the years 1895 to 1910 are presented. Together they constitute an important starting point for Hilma af Klint’s abstract painting and provide a background to what would later lead to her most important series: The Paintings for the Temple.

In this exhaustive book on Hilma af Klint published to date, twenty specialists in Modern Art, Art History, the History of Ideas and Religious Studies use their expertise to explore af Klint s unique artistry. The topics range from early Abstract Art and the impact of Darwin and Goethe s Colour Theory, to the importance of occult religious movements such as Theosophy and Anthroposophy which influenced the early modernists. Some of Hilma af Klint s own diary notes and research are also included. The book is based on a seminar held in conjunction with the extremely successful exhibition Hilma af Klint A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013 at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The book has an epilogue by Daniel Birnbaum.This is a new edition that includes a recent essay by Kurt Almqvist, Hilma af Klint s Secret Teachings, Message and Philosophy , based on previously unpublished material. It investigates parts of Hilma af Klint s story that have not been looked at before: the background of her teachings and philosophy; the developments after her death in 1944 up until the formation of The Hilma af Klint Foundation in 1972; and the only heir to her works: the anthropologist Vice-Admiral Erik af Klint (1901 1981), the Foundation s founder and only donor.

In ten blue books, Hilma af Klint presented miniatures of The Paintings for the Temple, both as photographs and watercolour paintings. This volume includes every spread from these books. The reason she created this replica of the series was to be able to, in a more accessible way, show the works to people in other countries, including the founder of the Anthroposophical Society, Rudolf Steiner. Perhaps the books were also a way for her to understand her own works, since she believed she simply acted as a medium for the ‘High Masters’. The books have no dates, but it seems likely that they were created in the second half of the 1910s. According to af Klint’s own notes, her intention was for these books not to be studied until 20 years after her death.

The Paintings for the Temple is Hilma af Klint’s most significant series and consists of 193 works – among them the iconic The Ten Largest. The paintings, that according to af Klint, was an assignment from the spirit world, was created outside of the group The Five, together with Anna Cassel and Augusta Gusten Andersson, among others. The series can be understood as af Klints quest for a fundamental ‘oneness’. A oneness that existed when the world was created, but which was then lost, giving way to a world of dualities: good and evil, woman and man, matter and spirit. The different series attempt to unite these opposites, and at the same time they reveal af Klint’s many influences from the era she lived through.

This volume presents seven series of works by the pioneering artist Hilma af Klint. They were all created in the first half of the year 1920 and are the last paintings af Klint made before turning to watercolour and adopting a recognisable style of painting taught by Rudolf Steiner and his disciples.The anthology is based on a seminar held at the Goethe-Institut London in conjunction with the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen, which took place at the Serpentine Galleries during the spring of 2016.

The 2018 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, introduced the general public to the abstract mystical masterpieces of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). Based on a seminar held at the Guggenheim Museum at the opening of this acclaimed exhibition, this volume compiles the insights of the seminar’s contributors alongside reproductions of works, archival photographs and images from af Klint’s journals.Hilma af Klint: Visionary explores the social and spiritual movements that appeared at the turn of the 20th century, inspiring the pioneers of modernism and abstract art: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich and af Klint. What was the zeitgeist that inspired such an eruption in abstract art? What were the conditions that created Hilma af Klint? Academics and experts Julia Voss, Tracey Bashkoff, Isaac Lubelsky, Linda Dalrymple Henderson and Marco Pasi each take a different approach. Voss analyzes af Klint's biography, pinpointing five important events in her life; Bashkoff presents her connection to Hilla Rebay and her plans for the building of a temple; Lubelsky traces the origins of theosophy in New York; Henderson examines the occult and science; and Pasi considers esotericism’s changing role in culture.