Critical studies

 Abstraction and process art talk  

After our talk on abstraction and process art we were asked to find two pieces of work exploring process or abstraction and discuss. When looking at abstract artists I've decided to discuss Hilma af Klint.

Hilma af Klint was a female Swedish painter from 1862-1944. As she was Swedish due there own societal norms she was able to receive a formal art education despite the time period and her gender. During her early art career she was an avid landscape and portrait painter, sticking with her conventional art training but later made the switch to abstract painting. This switch in subject was heavily influenced by personal belief and societal changes in thinking. Af Klint had a high belief and interest in spirituality, so much so that she was a founding member of a spiritual group that conducted practices, meditations and séances. These believes fed into her abstract work through automatic paintings and the aim to create a visual of something unseen. 19th century discoveries in the natural sciences created some lee way within society for such abstract work to be seen and created although still restricted, the accepted ideas of gravity and such unseen forces gave space for idea of depicting unseen elements by a wider audience opposed to just those with occult beliefs. Despite this her work wasn't truly appreciated until years after her death, although she did have recognition and small success within the spiritual community at the time. 

 In conclusion, her abstract process was a way of depicting feelings and the unseen, giving a visual quality to something void of visuality.