Oh this post reminds me, recently I was doing research into Surrealism, especially female artists of that period and I came across a really interesting artist named Hilma af Klint.
My interest was piqued when I read a quote of hers “God is not a being but a power, not a creature but an eternity, not something with form but a life that can assume an endless number of forms.” -Hilma af Klint
What I found particularly intriguing was that her art came about from channeling some so-called “higher masters” and that she kept her work mostly secret. She was a member of the Theosophical Society, she and four friends formed a group known as “The Five" and regularly attended “spiritual”meetings that culminated in her art work.
(They opened each meeting with a prayer, followed by a meditation, a Christian sermon, and a review and analysis of a text from the New Testament. All of this would then be followed by a séance.[4] They recorded in a book a completely new system of mystical thoughts in the form of messages from higher spirits, called The High Masters ("Höga Mästare"). One, Gregor, spoke thus: "All the knowledge that is not of the senses, not of the intellect, not of the heart but is the property that exclusively belongs to the deepest aspect of your being...the knowledge of your spirit") - Wikipedia
(During their séances, they practise automatic writing and drawing. According to Hilma af Klint, these paintings are created mediumistically. Her work was a kept secret and shown only to a chosen few.
Over the years, she cultivated her role as an artist, healer, and spiritual seeker, investigating what she considered to be the invisible sphere of existence. The evolutionary idea of so-called “dual-truth” was, according to af Klint, a longing for unity that followed from the recognition of the duality of the world and of the human condition. This longing was reflected in the evolution of the soul towards the deepest state of its “being-in-relation,” in which it would achieve mutuality and oneness.
她的作品强调了事实她相信,all religions were different ways towards reaching unity. Her drawings and watercolors were intended to lead the viewer onto other levels of awareness and glimpses into the fourth-dimension, a place where the understanding of space would increase and illusory perceptions then disappear.
She claimed her work were ‘messages for humanity for the future’ and decided to write a clause in her will that states world wasn’t ready for her ideas and that her works should remain contained until 20 years after her death) - Excerpts from the following article
Abstract Alchemy: Hilma af Klint