Comprehensive, fascinating, and thought-provoking. Thank you

@michaelcarterstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and your comment

this is A MILLION TIMES BETTER than the documentary Beyond the Visible

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! That’s a big compliment

This was a wonderful watch. The closing statements brought me to tears. Well done, Michael Carter.

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, that is a great compliment

I just watched this for the second time as I’m about to go to the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney to see some of her work. Thanks for sharing this lecture and for being in the right place, at the right time, with the right information 👍🏼

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

I am so grateful for your effort to put her work and its spiritual elements together again. I really enjoyed the lecture 🙏

@michaelcarterstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, that’s a very accurate and great way to describe my intent for the lecture. Thanks for your comment.

This is an excellent talk, which I am so grateful to have heard. Very important work deserving of attention.

That was fascinating!! My Diagnostic Molecular Biology professor introduced me to Hilma af Klint in one of his lectures. I love looking at all the organic & biological forms in her pieces and making the connections between our physical and spiritual realms :)

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

happytrochoid thanks for watching. What school is it?

@etiennedegaulle3817

2 жыл бұрын

Please tell us more about how your professor made the connection between the two.

Thank you for making this video! Very interesting, thoughtfully crafted, and entertaining.

Thank you for this lecture! Thank you so much for having this online. What a great contextualisation here to Hilma af Klint's work and time. - I believe it is now (since 2020 or so) considered that the painting you showed at the start and at the end is NOT in fact a self-portrait , but a portrait of her friend and fellow artist, Lotten Rönquist.

@michaelcarterstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Ah, interesting in hear! Thanks for sharing this correction/update. I’m sure there’ll be many more as research and scholarship continue

So much great information in this lecture, I have watched it twice and still got more 2nd time. It makes me feel I should like to know more about the Five and about Hilmas day to day life. Thanks for your work Michael. 🙏

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and your comment. Have you seen Halina Dyrschka's documentary, "Hilma af Klint: Beyond the Visible"? It's very good and there's a lot of day-to-day life details there. But we're all eagerly awaiting the translation of Julia Voss' biography on HaK, supposedly an English translation is coming in 2021; I think this will be a deeply informative work.

I have greatly enjoyed this lecture. In my Montessori studies and teaching to the 0-3 years old, I have observed that children go through the same stages of art development. It starts with the love of movement on a surface as soon as the hand is free to representation of the human being around 3-4 years old. I was astonished that this was a universal unfolding that took place in all of us if we let the process unfolds. The work of Arno Stern and the jeu de peindre also points towards an unfolding of phases which he saw in various cultures. He says that in recent decades this unfolding is more and more difficult to reclaim later on in life. If af Klint experienced free painting maybe she found herself on a path of unfolding phases or is it too organized a body of work to make that kind of assumption? I also wondered if Goethe would not be the source of the design of the seven rays as in his Theory of Colors there were rays but not organized the same way.

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Mélanie-Rose, thank you and thanks for sharing your perspective and experience. The "free painting" phase you describe is probably best associated with HaK's early, Spiritualist-influenced work by automatic drawing and painting; this is the work leading up to and including the "Ten Largest." I briefly discussed the work of artist and Spiritualist, Georgiana Houghton in the lecture; I think you'll find many parallels with your observations if you start looking into artists like Houghton. The universal unfolding you describe is certainly resonate with the Theosophical and Anthroposophical doctrines that HaK was immersed in; most notably in Steiner's theories of early childhood development as articulated in the Waldorf education system. Did you know that Maria Montessori spent the years during WW2 as a guest of the Theosophical Society at the Adyar headquarters in India? The society continues to publish some of her writings to this day. Montessori had largely developed her theories before then but the sympathy is evident. Yes, Goethe is certainly a known and documented influence on HaK and many artist of her generation. I left out explorations of Goethe's influence for reasons of length and because they are more knowledgeable scholars who have commented on the connection already. It's been established by others that Goethe's Theory of Colors is largely descended from Boehme's writings so Goethe cannot be the ultimate source of this system. I have read many, many assertions that the seven rays/color spectrum symbolism is at least a couple of millennia old-I'm still unconvinced by the evidence for this. I suspect the modern source is likely a fusion of early modern science (Newton's 17th-c work in the color spectrum, for instance) and the much more ancient septenary systems (seven sacred planets, the seven rays in Gnosticism and the Chaldean Oracles, etc). But it's also possible that people like Newton chose to divide the spectrum into seven because of their knowledge of these archaic systems! The history of the seven rays is an interesting question that is not yet fully explored in an objective, rigorous way.

Fascinating. I love the links between time and country. Thank you for sharing.

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and your comment

Thank you Michael for a fascinating lecture, broadening one´s knowledge from a quality standpoint is always immensely satisfying.

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

samojed2004 you’re very welcome, thanks for watching

I was the 444th like :-) thank you for the fascinating lecture. It is indeed interesting. I am a bit much obsessed with Hilma af Klint recently.

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Excellent! Thanks for watching and your comment

Thank you Michael for this amazing lecture!

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and your comment

I so enjoyed this lecture, thank you! I am very curious about Hilma af Klint's relationship with Rudolf Steiner. You quote someone at 34:00, regarding their meeting in 1908: "He witnessed the entire body of work which had been established by his lead and expressed himself on the painting." You go on to say that he held the guidance of spirits in a lower regard, and that he encouraged her to develop her own inner faculties more. So many questions! So first off, what is meant by her body of work being "established by his lead?" And also, is it possible that Steiner may have, in a sense, sort of shut down af Klint in a way by devaluing her method of receiving spiritual guidance? It's interesting that later in life she works with watercolor in a way that seems so heavily influenced by Steiner. I was so struck by this part of your lecture that I wrote about it at length in my own journal this morning. Specifically, I was curious about the thoughts of mediumship. As an artist myself--and I'm sure you have this experience as well--there is an opening that occurs within the psyche, that allows for something to be received. I'm fascinated with Hilda af Klint's decision to really develop that aspect of the creative process, to the extent that she received a commission from a spiritual being. That is really astonishing and revolutionary! And I wonder if this is perhaps something that Steiner didn't understand. I think of mediumship as a particularly feminine aspect of the creative process, and am not surprised that it would have been suspect. I'm so interested in your thoughts. Thank you again for a really marvelous lecture.

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

Hi Stephanie, thanks for watching and your questions. Discussing the dynamic between Steiner and af Klint was one of the big reasons I gave this lecture. At the time, I was hearing many statements coming out in the press and art world that were at best uninformed and at worst projections. Many of these statements showed a lack of knowledge about their shared occult culture, conflicted with the developing scholarly research, and (most concerningly) contradicted af Klint's own writings and actions around their interactions. That quote is from Ake Fant's catalog essay for the 1989 exhibit at the Moderna Museet. The essay is only in Swedish so I have yet to read it in full. He was one of the first art historians to really champion HaK and is a big part of why were are talking about her now. I don't know what Fant meant by "established by his lead." Steiner would have been head of the German Section of the Theosophical Society (TS) at that point and responsible for the Esoteric Section of most of Europe, so that's a possible direction to consider. The question about spirit communication is a nuanced issue and requires knowledge of the culture and doctrine of the TS and its descendants to fully grasp the conflict. Spiritual guidance isn't the issue, that's in fact what Steiner is encouraging her to rely on. The trouble for him comes from the type of guidance used in the earliest works: her use of *passive* (trance) mediumship. Rejection of passive mediumship is one of defining aspects of the TS; Blavatsky claimed her masters specifically directed the formation of the TS (thirty years prior to the Steiner and af Klint's first meeting) in part to check the rising influence of Spiritualism in Europe and America. So, Steiner's devaluing of passive mediumship is not a position unique to him, it's the doctrine of the TS and one that the mostly women leaders of the TS (Blavatsky, Besant, etc) have been repeating for decades before this studio visit. If you go back to that section of my talk (34:00) I discuss this point further and quote Blavatksy on this subject. If you consider, the reason af Klint is eager for this contact with Steiner is because *she doesn't understand her own work.* Why? Because it was channelled passively, she's not consciously aware of the content. She says this and I quote this in the lecture. So, he's discouraging her reliance on unknown, astral entities and skeptical of the messages these entities might give. Instead, Steiner is encouraging her to rely on her own, developed, spiritual faculties instead (higher Manas and Budhic faculties in theosophical nomenclature). This is the very "opening in the psyche" you describe! Another way to understand this is that he's encouraging her to use her own spiritual voice instead of being the mouthpiece for another being. I think Steiner understood very well this aspect of her commission and HaK's later artistic direction show she took his criticism seriously. Was the source of this commission astonishing? Certainly. Revolutionary? I'm not so sure. In Halina Dyrschka's documentary, there's a scene towards the end were art writer Julia Voss discusses this point and lists the many, well-known artists who have asserted communication with disembodied entities as the inspiration for their work. If you haven't seen the documentary yet, I encourage you to watch it. What's revolutionary to me is the realization this is a fairly regular event in art history!

@ad6449

3 жыл бұрын

Michael Carter Studio Thank you for this long, thoughtful, and informed response, Michael. During this part of your lecture, I began to wonder if HaK began to doubt herself and the process she had undertaken? So many years of study, then a year of meditation and prayer and fasting in preparation to do this work. Then the work itself. A deep powerful spiritual process. Self doubt can surely halt creativity, especially when combined with needing to care for an aging and ill parent. I think that I'm rooting for her, not wanting HaK to doubt the tremendous power of what she has done, and what she gave us, left for us. Interesting how it all unfolds, indeed. Thank you for the presentation and the engagement.

@ad6449

3 жыл бұрын

Michael Carter Studio Maybe I'm also considering how women at this time might not have had as much social freedom as men. Did HaK see Steiner as a 'superior' then? Did she 'give away her [creative] power' to Steiner in order to be accepted within the society? Or was this purely a spiritual question about the 'source' of the commission and what it was expressing through HaK? To have doubt brought into such a long and potent set of spiritual and creative processes is quite intense to consider. So many questions!

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

@@ad6449 Thanks for your question. You are wanting to probe deeply into her psychology and motivations; I think these kinds of questions can be endlessly debated and never be unequivocally answered for historical persons. It's easy to get caught up in personal conjecture or outright projection. I'm looking forward to Julia Voss' hopefully comprehensive biography recently published in German and supposedly the English translation is coming next year. In this lecture I tried to restrict my references to statements by af Klint that had been previously translated into English and published by academic sources but there's a vast amount of her journals that have yet to be translated from Swedish. Yes, I've read quotes that seem to be expressing doubt or uncertainty. There's a letter often quoted were af Klint writes to Steiner many years after their first meeting were she seems to be expression frustration: what should she do with all of the artworks then, destroy them? Did she see Steiner as a "superior"? Definitely as a leader and a guru I think is clear. My main goal in this lecture was pointing towards the specific histories and doctrines that influenced these people. You can't start to answer your questions meaningfully without a deeper understanding of the historical moment they were apart of and what the very specific context was. Without knowledge of the broader Theosophical movement, its doctrines, the context of the Steiner succession, and the doctrines of Anthroposophy, the motivations for all this history just becomes speculation. They all believed they were going to be instrumental in ushering in a new spiritual era of humanity (the new age); it's clear HaK and Steiner had different ideas about how this would be accomplished. In spite of not receiving the praise she was expecting from her peers, af Klint continued to make her work for decades after. I don't see that she gave away her power only that she didn't get the response she was imagining. To me, this is something of the flavor of the entire Theosophical movement at this time: a feeling of unlimited possibilities, validation by science and society, on the cusp of real world-changing greatness. Only, in hindsight, it didn't quite work out that way...

@MimiYouyu

3 жыл бұрын

Conjecture though. Pure conjecture. I only believe what she said/ wrote herself

thank you so much for sharing this information

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Jenny Zhe Chang Thank you, thanks for watching and your comment.

Wow. I want to study her work, now.

Thank you

Thank you!

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

You're very welcome. Thanks for your comment

This was amazing and I have watched it many times. I am writing my dissertation on HaK and only on her first body of work, up to 1915. Could you pls be so kind and elucidate on the ref about the colour spectrum? Harmon Manuscript? Can I find anything online about it? I am based in the UK, hence I could not come there. Thank you, I really appreciate that!

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and your comment. That's great to hear you're working on a dissertation about HaK, a very worthwhile subject. Up to 1915 is really the most dramatic era and there's much to investigate still. The ubiquity of the seven color spectrum during the first two decades of the 20th-c is most directly a result of the dissemination of the Theosophical doctrine of the "Seven Rays." The major historical link with HaK for this are Blavatsky's "Esoteric Instructions"; originally accessible only to Theosophists in the Esoteric School, these instructions are publicized in the controversial "Third Volume" of the Secret Doctrine published in the late 1890s. I discuss this around 1:15:00 The Harmon manuscript is unfortunately not digitized and is currently only accessible at the library of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles; it is completely unknown to scholarship at the present. If you will follow up with me via my website or instagram, it'd be happy to send you more leads and resources for your research.

Wow thank you!

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

you're welcome, thanks for watching

Interesting but it left me with a question. If her work is based on or influenced by these texts why couldn't Steiner explain them to af Klint? I assume that he as leader of this movement in Europe was well informed.

@michaelcarterstudio

4 жыл бұрын

That's a good question! Thank you. Three possible ways to think about this: 1 - The earliest works leading up to the Ten Largest ("The Ages of Man") are more the result of her mediumship. Passive mediumship is widely rejected by the Theosophical Society and its descendants so it's something Steiner possibly would not have had first-hand experience with. I think he's more of a philosopher and metaphysician (like a jnana yogi). A better reference for this earliest work are the paintings of Georgiana Houghton. 2 - Af Klint is always putting her personal insights into these concepts. The use of "UW" for instance isn't something I've encountered in theosophical teachings but the emphasis on the interaction of polarities (masculine/feminine) definitely is. Same with the Seven Rays in the Altarpieces but the "0" and "00" notations on the rays are uniquely Hilma. So, I think she's coming to understand these concepts and then adding her personal expression. 3 - Steiner himself is *not* an orthodox Theosophist. He rises to leadership during an era when the TS is trying to regionalize Theosophy and makes it clear from the beginning he's developing his own understanding. Also, the Theosophical Society during this time has already departed from Blavatsky's "original lines" to the point that some call it Neo-Theosophy. Did af Klint study the "Secret Doctrine"? Definitely. Did Steiner? I don't know... Overall, when I gave this lecture in 2019, I was strongly reacting to a statement I was hearing often then, that af Klint's work "came out of nowhere." That is, there were no precedents and she was referencing nothing. Clearly this is not the case. My goal was to point out that there's clear influences of the metaphysics she was studying and, if you went to the same sources, there are direct and obvious keys to begin understanding the work.

Tantric art

@michaelcarterstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, exactly. Renders the whole question of “who was the first abstract painter?” a bit meaningless while simultaneously expanding the conversation beyond its current, Eurocentric bounds