Female Film Critics 24/375
One of modern art’s most significant — and simultaneously least well-known — figures gets her moment in the spotlight in Lasse Hallström’s lovingly filmed biopic Hilma. The film tells the story of Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter whose affinity for mysticism and the spiritual world led her to create large-scale abstract art that you’d swear was influenced by Kandinsky … if you didn’t know with certainty that af Klint’s work predated his.
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Hilma is a sumptuous truth-based period drama that chronicles the life and work of Swedish artist Hilma aft Klint (1862 – 1944). Hilma was a brilliant and innovative artist whose abstract paintings preceded those of the better-known Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944), who has, until recently, been credited by art historians with the invention of abstract art.
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Swedish writer and director Lasse Hallström’s new truth–based period drama, Hilma, shares a vibrant and mystical take on the extraordinary and secluded artist Hilma af Klint, exploring her dedication to spiritualism and painting. Hilma was a radical painter in early 1900s Sweden, making her the first abstract painter in Western art history. Hilma was ahead of her time as her paintings predate the likes of artists such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich; however, as a woman, she was denied the same recognition, only to have her work finally unboxed in 1967. Kandinsky was, until recently, acknowledged as the inventor of abstract art. Hilma is a captivating must-watch.
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I’m not much of a fan of abstract art, but I’ve just discovered an abstract artist whose work I adore. Oddly enough, the entire world is only just discovering this artist, even though she has been dead for almost 80 years. How is that even possible? The clue is in the pronoun: she.
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If, in a post-Hidden Figures world, anyone doubts that there are stories of amazing, accomplished women just waiting to be told, have them watch Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint. Halina Dyrschka’s fascinating documentary introduces viewers to a groundbreaking Swedish artist whom it’s safe to say that few had heard of — despite the fact that her work upends everything you thought you knew about abstract art.
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Director Halina Dryschka’s fascinating documentary is an illuminating introduction to a major artist all but erased from modern art history. Beyond the Visible should reach the general public as a needed and welcome corrective to art history, shining a light on yet another dynamic, trailblazing woman denied her rightful place in history, until now.
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She may have been ignored by history until recently, but by more humanist measures, as in the ability to inspire, move witnesses of her vision, and cause introspection and internal queries, Hilma af Klint is incredibly successful. It takes films like Beyond the Visible to enlighten the world about hidden treasures in history.
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