Hilma af Klint‘s Legacy Sparks Intense debate Over Control of Her Artistic Estate
Stockholm, Sweden – As the posthumous fame of pioneering abstract artist Hilma af Klint continues to surge, a complex and increasingly public dispute is unfolding in Sweden over the control and interpretation of her vast artistic legacy. The debate, playing out in legal filings, boardrooms, and public discourse, centers on who should define the meaning of af Klint’s work and who has the right to speak for the artist, decades after her death in 1944.
Af Klint, who believed she was channeling messages from astral beings to create paintings representing a “truer version” of reality beyond the material world, stipulated in her will that her nephew, Erik af Klint, inherit her extensive body of work. An admiral in the Navy, Erik initially relied on close friend Olof Sundström to catalog the archive of over 1,200 paintings, drawings, and 124 notebooks. However, Erik maintained a firm grip on access, writing to Sundström in 1946 that the work should be shown “only to people who understand its value and can feel reverence for it,” explicitly barring journalists.
For years, Erik wrestled with how to best preserve and potentially exhibit the collection. He expressed conflicting desires, at times suggesting a wider public exhibition to “generate interest,” while at other times warning that public display ”can never lead to anything good.” Discussions with Moderna Museet and the national museum regarding a large-scale exhibition in 1970 ultimately proved unsuccessful.
In 1972, Erik established the Hilma af Klint foundation, entrusting the archive to the Anthroposophical Society of Sweden. The Foundation’s statutes, outlined in a four-page document, explicitly prohibit the sale of af Klint’s most important works to ensure they remain accessible to “spiritual seekers.” Crucially, the foundation’s bylaws mandate that the board be chaired by a member of the af Klint family, with the remaining positions filled by members of the Anthroposophical Society – a structure that is now at the heart of the ongoing debate over the artist’s afterlife and the future of her groundbreaking work.
