Altarpieces and Closing Painting (1915)
Gallery 203
Hilma af Klint laid out her vision of the building that would house the Paintings for the Temple in one of her notebooks dating from 1930 to 1931. The temple would impart energy and serenity; it was supposed to be a round structure with several stories. Followers would take an ascending spiral path culminating at the altar room containing the Altarpieces, the three paintings displayed here. These were the last group and the compendium of the Paintings for the Temple.
Finished in 1915, the Altarpieces seem to be related to the Theosophical version on evolutionary theory, which states that evolution takes place in two directions, both rising from the physical to the spiritual plane, and falling from the divine to the material world. The paintings feature a culmination of the shapes, colors, and motifs in Paintings for the Temple. The importance that af Klint attached to the Altarpieces was underscored by her use of metal leaf, a material often used in traditional religious art to confer a special, luminous quality. Even though af Klint considered these altarpieces the finale of her most important life’s work, she made one more piece after them, a small painting titled Human Chastity, Closing Painting.