Past Film/Video | Documentaries

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint

(Halina Dyrschka, 2019)

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An actress reenacts artist Hilma af Klint painting a large canvas that is laid on the floor

Hilma af Klint was an abstract painter before the term existed. A visionary, trailblazing figure inspired by spiritualism, science, and the riches of the natural world around her, she began in 1906 to reel off a series of huge, colorful, sensual, and strange works without precedent—but for years did not exhibit them in public. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was an all-but-forgotten figure in most art historical discourse before her long-delayed rediscovery.

"Bristles with the excitement of discovery and also with the impatience that recognition has taken so long. It refreshes the eyes and the mind."
A. O. Scott, New York Times

Director Halina Dyrschka's dazzling, course-correcting documentary—featuring commentary by Wex Artist Residency Award recipient Josiah McElheny—describes not only the complex life and craft of af Klint, but also the process of her erasure by patriarchal and capitalistic narratives of artistic value. As New York Times art critic Roberta Smith wrote in her review of the Guggenheim exhibition, af Klint's "paintings definitively explode the notion of modernist abstraction as a male project." (93 mins., digital video)

More about the artist
Review: "'Hilma Who?' No More," Roberta Smith, New York Times

A person paints a large canvas that is laid on the floor

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, image courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

Painter Hilma af Klint in an archival photo posed, sitting on a chair with hand holding head and elbow on desk looking straight at camera

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, image courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

A person looking at two large abstract pieces of art by Hilma af Klint hanging in a recent exhibition

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, image courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

Three museum staff transferring a large work of art by Hilma af Klint with white-gloved hands

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, image courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

A person looking a large abstract artwork by Hilma af Klint hanging in a recent exhibition

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, image courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Ohio Arts Council
American Electric Power Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Nationwide Foundation

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Huntington Bank
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Kaufman Development
Cardinal Health Foundation

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Past Film/Video

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint