The Swan
HILMA AF KLINT
HILMA AF KLINT, 1915
For Hilma af Klint, whose forays into abstract art were perhaps the first to occur in the Western world, swans were stepping stones - symbols of the otherworldly wisdom that higher beings Georg and Ananda allegedly imparted upon the painter during a spiritual seance in 1904. The majestic swan symbolised the ‘grandeur of the spirit’ in Theosophy, a spiritualist movement of great interest to Klint; in alchemy, the swan represents the union of opposites necessary for the creation of the philosopher’s stone, or the power to transform base metals into gold. In the Swan series, af Klint blends established symbolism with her own idiosyncrasies, progressing from figurative swans to geometric forms suggestive of the higher dimensions she sought.