Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondriaan exhibition: integrity, myth and money

From October 7 Hilma Af Klint will gloriously return to the Kunstmuseum in The Hague. In 1986, now 37 years ago, Af Klint rose to international fame as the discovery of the century in the American travelling exhibition The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1895-1985, of which The Hague was the last venue. In 2018, Af Klint’s international acclaim as the pioneer of Swedish abstract art was sealed at the Guggenheim Museum. Af Klint’s work has acquired cultish dimensions. People swoon before her work. Researchers and critics regard themselves as channeled by the artist. 

So, nothing wrong with this new exhibition, is there? False: everything is wrong about this exhibition. Literally everything. 

Hilma af Klint revisited. Part I. The Theosophical Society in Sweden

As a researcher I am inclined to return to subjects which have seen no satisfactory conclusion. These open ends keep nagging me and force me to revise the facts and search for new ones. Such is the case with Hilma af Klint. I wrote about her a couple of years ago, questioning some biographical facts of her life, her position within the group of The Five and her art production. Four of the women of The Five, all members of the Stockholm Lodge of the Theosophical Society, are supposed to have merely served the impressive output on esoteric art which made Hilma af Klint famous.

In this blog, cut into three parts, I want to present alternative views.

New books at Bax Book Store

How influences of western esotericism in art are influenced by family networks

Art is not only the product of artistic inspiration, it is also determined by the social context of an artist. The avant-garde was ideologically determined by Western Esotericism, especially spiritualism, modern theosophy and anthroposophy. Genealogical methods uncover networks of artists, which not only run ‘vertically’ in generations, but also in ‘horizontal’ lines between families.
Text in Dutch.

Mondrian's Passions

No artist has changed the face of modern art, design and architecture more fundamentally than the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. During his career Mondrian slowly but surely evolved from a traditional 19th century realist painter to the prime pioneer of pure abstraction.
Post-war art historians and critics have always depicted Mondrian as an odd hermit, socially shy and introverted, with a frame of thinking as rectilinear as his art and his Calvinist upbringing.
But how true to his life is this image really?
This book is about Mondrian’s true passions: how painting, the struggle with outward appearance and painterly substance, becomes the inner expression of a view on life; how writing about painting evaluates ideas and development; and the cultivation an extensive social network to reach out to the world.
Mondrian’s message can be condensed into the magical amount of seven words: Art is passion, and passion is life.
This book contains a selection of seminal essays on Mondrian, published in international exhibition catalogues and books between 1994 and 2014, in various languages.

The painting methods of Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Bart van der Leck

De Stijl movement never was a coherent group. Analysis of the painting methods of Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Bart van de Leck reveal why.

  

How genealogy explains Theo van Doesburg's alias

The real name of the artist Theo van Doesburg, most active propagator of the De Stijl movement, was Christian Emil Marie Küpper. How and why did this Emil Küpper decide on his alias? Genealogy has all the answers.

 

Virtual Mondrian Museum - Mondrian3D

On Piet Mondrian's birthday, March 7, a new Mondrian museum opens its doors to the wide public: Mondrian 3D. The museum is a production of Activeworlds Europe, DXMedia and Bax Art Concepts & Services.

The concept of the museum is an extension of the ideas of Mondrian himself, even though the idea of a virtual environment didn’t exist in his time, at least not in this way. Mondrian wanted his art to be available to everyone, so that everyone could become familiar with his ideas. He had high ideals about the function of his art in modern society. He wanted his art to fit in with the latest technological and social developments, and at the same time it should deepen cultural awareness and awareness of the inner self.

Concept and goals of Mondrian 3D

The idea for a virtual museum dedicated to one artist dates from several years ago. In the real world museum organizing a retrospective of a major artist like Mondrian is a growing problem. An exhibition takes many years and is extremely expensive, in money, time, transportation and security. In this time of economic tightness sponsorship of exhibitions is increasingly under pressure. In the course of time works become progressively fragile; restoration prior to transport is costly and intensive. Some works are in private collections and are not available for loan at all. In the course of history work is lost, perhaps also the pictures of works that no longer exist, through fire or theft or disaster.

In a virtual museum is it possible to without all these restrictions to bring all of the works of an artist together and preserve the history of an oeuvre and an artist. A virtual museum is an environment where everyone in the world has access on his own time, now and in the distant future. The virtual museum can act as an interactive map connecting to centers of expertise in the real world, and in which discussions of professionals and enthusiasts can lead to understanding the cultural value of an artist. Collaboration between professional partners ensures that the virtual museum and its educational goals have the same high level as that of a physical museum.

Click here for the trailer of Mondrian3D

For many a virtual museum may appear science fiction, but among younger generations outside the traditional museum this is by no means the case. The youth of today is accustomed to moving in virtual worlds. Their way of communicating and forming communities is intricately connected with such environments. For young people the virtual world is not ‘testing place’ for social interaction; it is a real and natural part of daily life. In addition, young people at home and at school are now accustomed to gather knowledge and insights via the digital way. Working with digital sources has become an integral part of study skills taught at primary school. In this way, the virtual museum serves as an important and dependable first source of knowledge for the oeuvre of an artist. The next step is a visit to the real museum, where young people can smell the paint. Young people, in short, move from the virtual to the real. In pedagogical respect, one can be critical about his, but it is also possible to use this constructively.

Activeworlds

ActiveWorlds is a virtual environment, similar to Second Life or Sims. In this virtual world is it possible to exhibit a complete body of work, make your own exhibition, create separate spaces for private collections, hold meetings, lectures and tours, to offer educational projects and sell merchandise. The possibilities of a virtual museum as an extension of a physical museum are basically endless. Behind the avatars are real people, who can inform visitors, be it at a set time on the day (so real-life) but also when a visitor activates a button. And just as in a real museum you can meet each other at the meeting point, go to the café, walk to a specific work and discuss it together. A virtual museum offers even more: have you ever stood in front of a painting and secretly thought: what happens when I turn a painting? How does it look when it hangs upside down?

Visit the museum

Mondrian 3D is a virtual museum on a private area of the web. A simple plug-in is needed to access the world, the work, yourself and other visitors you see on your screen and with whom you can communicate. All information about the plug-in, visiting the museum and your presence at the opening can be found at www.museum3d.eu.