Hilma af Klint Inspired Abstruct Art Workshop for Kids

February 22, 2020

Hilma af Klint Inspired Abstruct Art Workshop for Kids

Hilma af Klint Inspired Abstract Art Workshop for Kids

Age: 6 - 10 years old

Date: Saturday March 7, 2:00-4:00pm

I was very inspired by Swedish female artist Hilma af Klint and her symbolic and spiritual abstract paintings when I saw her exhibition for the first time at New Museum few years ago. After my second visit to her large exhibition at Guggenheim last year, I did Hilma af Klint inspired art in some of my kids art classes. It was so much fun and I was very impressed by kid's view and ability to explore abstraction. They are so natural!

Hilma af Klint is considered the first Western abstract painter.
When her younger sister died in 1880, it was the time that the spiritual dimension of her life began to develop. Her interest in abstraction and symbolism came from her involvement in spiritism. She started to explore abstract paintings years before famous abstract painters such as Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Kazimir Malevich but kept her art private.
She rarely exhibited them and, convinced the world was not yet ready to understand her work, asked her family not to show her work for twenty years after her death. Ultimately, her work was all but unseen until 1986, and only recently her paintings paper begun to receive serious attention.

Read more about her and her work at the link from Guggenheim website:
https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/hilma-af-klint

All photos are taken by Sonomi Kobayashi @ Guggenheim Museum in NYC

What to expect from the workshop:

This lesson will allow children to learn about shapes and colors, and create art from a unique perspective while learning about Hilma af Klin.

- Talk about abstruct art, and Hilma af Klint in the history.

- Show children Hilma's work, discuss about colors and shapes, what they think, feel, etc,

- Talk about what inspired Hilma and how she created her work.

- I will let children to explore, draw and paint using pencils and washable tempera paint.