While Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was already celebrated as a pioneer of abstract art during his lifetime, Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), who began to paint non-figuratively at the same time, remained in the shadows of art history for a long time. Their lives revolved around a common fixed point: the all-changing power of art. Can it also help us today to dream of the future?
About the people
Julia Voss, born in 1974, was head of the art section of the FAZ, wrote the Hilma af Klint biography “‘Die Menschheit in Erstaunen versetzen’” (2020) and curated the exhibition “Träume von der Zukunft - Hilma af Klint & Wassily Kandinsky” with Daniel Birnbaum, which is currently on display at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Daniel Birnbaum, born in 1963, was rector of the Städelschule in Frankfurt, director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and edited Hilma af Klint’s “Catalogue Raisonné” with Kurt Almqvist. He is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and runs the London studio Acute Art, which he founded.