Artist field note

Hilma Af Klint

Abstraction before the story said abstraction began.

Appears inThe Overlooked
The Swan by Hilma Af Klint
Art Institute of Chicago · Public domainSource ↗

03 / 05

The Swan

1914-1915

Black and white birds become circles and diagrams as opposites move toward union.

The five in one idea

Af Klint complicates the familiar origin story of abstraction by arriving early and for entirely different reasons.