Beyond the Visible - Hilma Af Klint

I had read a bit about Hilma af Klint, but like most people who saw the exhibit at the Guggenheim, I was stunned when I realized how powerful her works are in person. Still, I thought I basically knew her story, so when someone recommended this documentary to me, I put off watching it for a while. Well, I finally saw it, and was blown away a second time. The filmmaker did a marvelous job showing me all the things I didn't know about Hilma af Klint. I knew she was academically trained, but I didn't know how assiduously she worked in series and developed her subjects. I knew she was interested in theosophy, but I didn't know how significant its views on women were to her. I didn't know how connected she was to scientific thought about the makeup of the universe. I thought I had seen a lot of her works but there were more and more, many astonishing.

You might have to be seriously interested in art to get caught up in this story, and some people will find the pace too leisurely, but it was exactly what I thought suited the subject. The photography was gorgeous. The art-historical points were clearly made. The multilingual "talking heads" were all lively, interesting people with useful, entertaining contributions (stay tuned after the credits for an additional tidbit from one of them).

My only complaint was that I would have liked to see some discussion of other types of abstraction, and how they fit into af Klint's work: decorative household arts of Scandinavia, spiritual art of the middle east, etc. But I suppose one doc can't cover everything. This one did so much more than I expected that it earns high marks from me. I hope my review doesn't impact anyone else's enjoyment, by getting their hopes up too high, but I was so impressed that I had to come here and write something.