Although they never met, Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian shared a deep dynamic connection to the natural world and began their careers as landscape painters. For them, science and mysticism were not exclusive practices, but part of the same essential framework for understanding the life forces around them.
Both artists engaged with science and esoteric thought as tools for exploring the underlying structures of nature and how they give meaning to art and life. Natural forms are abstracted to their atomic levels; cells evolve, dividing and expanding the canvas in colour; sinuous stems spiral into the ether whilst the crystalline formations of grids stretch out to form an infinite universe.
Including works never before seen in the UK, this publication will elucidate and invigorate our understanding of two ground-breaking artists and will be sure to get synapses firing.
Nabila Abdel Nabi Curator, International Art at Tate Modern.
Laura Stamps is curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Kunstmuseum Den Haag.
Brandon Taylor is Professor Emeritus of History of Art, University of Southampton, and currently Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary and Modern Art at Solent University, Southampton, and Visiting Tutor in History and Theory of Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Simon Grant is a writer, editor and art historian. He is currently editor of Pickups Magazine and was previously editor of Tate Etc. Magazine.
Michael White is a Professor in History of Art at the University of York.
Frances Morris is a curator, writer, broadcaster and Director Emerita, Tate Modern. She was previously Director of Tate Modern until February 2023.
