#art, ABSTRACT ART…OCS Valencia & Francisco Bravo Cabrera…

For many years, it was believed that abstract art was invented by Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter born in Moscow in 1866. It was also said that his «Abstract Watercolour» painted between 1910 and 1913 was the first abstract work in the history of art. But that wasn’t the case…

It turns out that it was Hilma Af Klint, a woman, who was the first to paint an abstract painting…

I was very happy to hear the news because women artists have been given so little credit in the history of art, and this fact sort of vindicates them. Hilma Af Klint was born in Sweden in 1862 and died in 1944. But most importantly, it has been recognized that all her abstract paintings were made before those of Malevich, Kandinsky, or Mondrian.

Perhaps due to her beliefs, she did not want her paintings to be known until fifty years after her death, and so it was. Klint belonged to an esoteric group called «The Five.» They were women who followed, or were inspired by Theosophy. They communicated with their ascended masters through seances, and their paintings contained the symbols they used to explain or represent their spiritual beliefs and ideas.

Hilma was very interested in botany and mathematics, but because she showed skills in drawing, her parents sent her to Tekniska, now called Konstfack, in Stockholm, where she studied art, specializing in portraits and landscapes. In 1882, she was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where she completed her studies and graduated in 1887. It was during those years at the academy that she met Anna Cassel and the other female artists who would form the group known as The Five.

Klint and the other members of The Five all joined the Edelweiss Society, a society that believed in the teachings of Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy and spiritualism. It was then that Hilma began to create her paintings, asserting that a spiritual force was painting through her hand. She did not create sketches or prior drawings. In 1906, Klint painted her first series of abstractions.

Art tends to confuse many people because they are not clear about all the changes, advancements, and vanguards that the history of art has gone through. And, truly I do believe that the history of art is organic. We are making history at this very moment. But what I think confuses people the most is abstract art, although I promise you, it is the simplest thing in the world.

I will give you a brief lecture on art (painting, photography, and sculpture). Art is divided into only two types: Figurative and Abstract. Abstract art can be defined as a painting, sculpture or drawing, with an internal reference, that does not have anything in its composition that resembles anything in real life. Figurative art is everything else. I hope I have cleared up any doubts you may have.

In my blog, VALENCIARTIST (www.paintinginvalencia.com), I have published a series dedicated to the women artists who have indeed existed and have painted extensively throughout the centuries. But they have not been properly recognized.

Also, on my YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/@FranciscoBravoCabrera) I have many videos dedicated to introducing many of these great artists that need to be known, and among them is this one, dedicated to abstraction: https://youtu.be/GAWWG7do-cY.»

Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 05 JUL 2023, Valencia, España