Style Imitating Art: The Ten Biggest, No 7!

Style Imitating Art…

Welcome to Style Imitating Art which comes from Salazar, Shelbee, and me. You can think of this series as fashion meets art museum! SIA challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. I am this week’s curator with this colorful painting. I hope you enjoy this post, the information, and my interpretation.

How it works…

Every other Monday one of us selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. We then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, we share our outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. I chose this week’s art work for this round of Style Imitating Art. If you’d like, you can read why I chose it here. Please send your photo to me by Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 by 10 pm EST. Style Imitating Art is an interesting way to inspire your outfits. You can see a few of my looks here, here, here, and here.

The artist…

Hilma af Klint was a very interesting person in my opinion.  She was born at the Karlberg Palace in Solna, Sweden on October 26, 1862.  She was the fourth child of Mathilda and Captain Victor af Klint.  Her dad was a Swedish naval commander.  The young Hilma would vacation with her family at their manor, “Hanmora,” on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren.  From those early times, she would develop a deep relationship with nature.  This, in turn, created her connection to natural forms which appeared in her art.  She was also interested in both mathematics and botany.  After the family moved to Stockholm, Hilma, who was already showing an early ability in visual art, studied at Tekniska skolan (Technical School – now Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm.  Among the subjects she studied were portraiture and landscape painting.

A little more…

In 1882, af Klint was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.  For the next five years, she studied drawing, portrait painting, botanical drawings, and landscape painting.  She graduated with honors and received an unusual scholarship.  This was a studio in the “Atelier Building” (Ateljébyggnaden).  This was owned by the Academy of Fine Arts and was the main cultural hub of the Swedish capital at that time.  Interestingly, there were two different establishments in that building…Blanch’s Café and Blanch’s Art Gallery.  The conflict arose from the established art view of the Academy and the opposite views held by the Art society (Konstnärsförbundet).  These views were motivated by the en plein air painting of the French artists (I’m guessing we’d call them Impressionists).  I’m not sure of the timeline at this point, but sometime during this time, af Klint began working in Stockholm.  She began selling her “conventional” paintings (landscapes, botanical drawings, and portraits) as her main source of income.  But, there was another side to af Klint!  She became known as one of the first abstract painters ever and was also known as a mystic!

Even more…

In 1880, before she had been admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, af Klint’s younger sister, Hermina, died.  With her death, Hilma’s spiritual life began to take form.  She became interested in spiritism.  In a nutshell, this was a doctrine which began in France in the mid-1800s.  Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (aka Allan Kardec) believed his idea was Christian in nature.  Basically, Kardec said a spirit was in a cycle which returned to a material existence following the death of the body it had previously inhabited.  It would also undergo some type of evolution during the process.  Spiritualism (which is not the same) and spiritism were emerging as new religious movements.  I’m not 100% sure about the connection to her sister, though. 

Still more…

Af Klint continued this spiritual journey through the years.  She studied the works of Madame Blavatsky (source) and the philosophy of Christian Rosencreutz (source).  In 1908, her spiritual life began to merge with her artistic life when she met Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical Society.  To cut a very long story short, the Anthroposophical Society was an “’association of people whose will it is to nurture the life of the soul, both in the individual and in human society, on the basis of a true knowledge of the spiritual world.’ As an organization, it is dedicated to supporting the community of those interested in the inner path of schooling known as anthroposophy, developed by the aforementioned Rudolf Steiner (source).”  Af Klint’s works are mainly spiritual even though she is recognized as one of the first major abstract artists in Western art history. 

“She felt the abstract work and the meaning within were so groundbreaking that the world was not ready to see it, and she wished for the work to remain unseen for 20 years after her death.”

A skosh more…

Af Klint was part of a group called “The Five.”  This was a circle of women who believed in some entities called the “High Masters.”  One way to reach them was through séances.  The other women in the group were Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson.  They first met as members of the Edelweiss Society (influenced by Helena Blavatsky (mentioned above).  All five were very interested in the paranormal and regularly scheduled séances.  Interestingly, they opened each of these with a prayer, then meditation, a Christian sermon, and a review/analysis of a text from the New Testament.  Then came the séance.  Af Klint began to “receive” messages from the High Masters.  She believed they used her as a conduit to create her art.  Eventually, she was assigned the creation of paintings for the “Temple,” something af Klint never truly understood.  She wrote in her notebook:

“The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke (source).”

The Temple paintings…

Af Klint created 196 pieces for the Temple between the years of 1906 and 1915.  In 1908, however, Rudolf Steiner left her with the impression her works weren’t good.  She didn’t paint for another four years.  In 1912, she resumed work on her Temple pieces. The colors she used were all meaningful:  blue is the female spirit; yellow is the male spirit; and pink/red for physical/spiritual love.  There are some who believe Anna Cassel most likely contributed to these works.  “Her painting became more autonomous and more intentional. The spiritual would continue to be the main source of creativity throughout the rest of her life (source).”  After she completed the 196 pieces, she didn’t receive any more spiritual guidance, but her paintings continued to be abstract. 

Finally…

In 1944, af Klint was in a traffic accident and died on October 21 at the age of 81.  She is buried at Galärvarvskyrkogården in Stockholm.  Af Klint only exhibited her work a few times, mainly at spiritual conferences and gatherings.  Many believed this to be intentional; however, recently art historians believe she may have tried to show her work.  In 1928, one exhibition was held at the World Conference on Spiritual Science in London.  You can read so much more about Hilma af Klint here and here.

The artwork…

The Ten Biggest, No 7 is part of ten very large paintings. “During one such séance in 1906, the artist, who was 43 years old at the time, reported receiving a commission from a higher being. She claimed she had been asked to make paintings on a transcendent plane, which would one day be hung in a nearly circular temple specifically designed to house them. Over the next nine years, af Klint completed what she described as her ‘great commission,’ which she referred to as The Paintings for the Temple. This mammoth series of 193 works encompasses several smaller thematic subsets. It includes af Klint’s earliest abstract works as well as the paintings on view in this gallery…Af Klint wrote the following in a notebook about the instructions that she received for making this group of paintings: ‘It was not the case that I was to blindly obey the High Lords of the mysteries but that I was to imagine that they were always standing by my side.’ She also wrote: ‘Ten paradisiacally beautiful paintings were to be executed; the paintings were to be in colors that would be educational and they would reveal my feelings to me in an economical way…. It was the meaning of the leaders to give the world a glimpse of the system of four parts in the life of man.’ As af Klint continued to make The Paintings for the Temple, her imagery became imbued with increasingly complex meaning. With each new series or group of works, the artist layered recurring motifs with new forms and subjects, while exploring formal and conceptual conventions of art making, such as color, scale, balance, and edge. (source).'”

Our painting measures height 10.7 x 7.87 ft (328 x 240 cm). It is oil and tempura on paper and was completed in 1907. It is currently housed at the Hilma af Klint Foundation in Stockholm.

My interpretation…

I was well and truly stumped on this one. I thought there was a lot of orange in it with some green in it. So, I went rummaging in my closet and came out with something I thought would work well. But, then I took a closer look at the painting and realized there was far more yellow than orange in it. There were all those little squiggles and just a lot going on. I had bought this scarf at the museum gift shop because I had a feeling it could maybe work. But, when I put it with the orange/green look I’d first come up with, it was a complete no go! Then, I remembered I had this beautiful yellow linen dress from J Jill. It’s appeared on the blog for SIA a couple of times, I’m pretty sure. I decided to scrap the orange/green look and go with the yellow dress and the scarf. And, bonus! The scarf has flashes of orange in it! But, I also wanted to wear the Stella & Dot necklace because I thought it just had this feeling of af Klint about it. If I wore the scarf around my neck, the necklace disappeared. That’s when I decided to try something way out of my wheelhouse. I tied opposite corners of the scarf together and wore it almost like a very large sash. I actually really like the way this came out, but I don’t think I’d actually wear it this way without a little more finagling. I will definitely wear the scarf with the dress, though in a more “regular” way.

The Lewk!

There are days I plan my outfit around my shoes. That’s not always the case for the blog. Today, I knew I was going to use these Delight Slide Sandals by L’Artiste because I think some of the patterns on them mimic the patterns on the artwork. The necklace is an old Stella & Dot as are the earrings and the gold spiky bracelet. The other gold bracelet is from Talbots while the multicolor bead bracelet is from J Jill.

Wrap it up, Marsha!

If your mind is boggled, join the club!  I tried to write this so that I could understand it, but there were bits and bobs I just couldn’t wrap my brain around. While I don’t exactly love her work, I can see the beauty in it.  I bet she was an interesting person with whom to talk!  So, can we talk?  Have you ever heard of spiritism?  Does it sort of break your brain to think of Christianity, seances, and “High Masters” exist in the same plain?  Are you a fan of abstract art?  Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as quickly as I can.

Don’t forget…

If you want to be included in the Style Imitating Art round up, send me your photo by 10:00 pm EST, Tuesday, October 7th. Photos of everyone participating will appear on my blog on Wednesday, October 8th! If you’re interested in joining us, consider all of your options…the colors, the textures, the feelings they evoke! Come on, give it a try! I think you’ll love it!

Thank you!

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

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Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, Suzy Turner, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, Style Splash and Elegantly Dressed and Stylish as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop (Esme’s Salon) and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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