Film screening looks at the real start of abstractism

An upcoming film screening at Goethe-Institut Cyprus focuses on a time when the art world made a sensational discovery, just 100 years too late. In 1906, Hilma af Klint paints her first abstract picture, long before Kandinsky, Mondrian or Malewitsch. In total, she creates over 1,500 abstract paintings, which remain hidden from posterity for decades. This real-life Swedish artist’s paintings were considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history. Yet how could it be that a woman founded abstract painting at the beginning of the 20th century and no one took any notice?

The film Beyond the Visible directed by Halina Dyrschka, to be screened on November 11, asks exactly that. The cinematic approach to a pioneer whose sensual work fascinates, not only artistically, shows a lifelong search for meaning that seeks to grasp life beyond the visible.

Hilma af Klint’s extraordinary world of thought ranges from biology and astronomy to theosophy and the theory of relativity, spanning a fascinating cosmos of unique images and notes. Today, the artist inspires millions with her unrestrained thinking, which culminates in an overwhelming oeuvre and turns the historiography of art on its head.

Beyond the Visible

Film screening on the artist Hilma af Klint whose paintings considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history. November 11. Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Nicosia. 7pm. Free. Tel: 22-674606