Why is she important to abstract art?

She painted abstract works before Kandinsky

What are The Ten Largest?

Huge paintings about stages of life

What did she request about her abstract works?

That they stay unseen for 20 years after her death

Hilma af Klint Quiz: Paintings for the Temple and Abstraction

This Hilma af Klint quiz uncovers the Swedish painter who made abstract art before the famous pioneers. Play 10 interactive questions on her training in Stockholm, the spiritualist group The Five, séances, Paintings for the Temple, The Ten Largest, spirals and diagrams, her wish to hide the works for 20 years after her death and the record-breaking Guggenheim show.

Start Hilma af Klint Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Country
Which country was Hilma af Klint from?
Training
Where did she study art?
First
Why is she important to abstract art?
Group
What was The Five?
Temple
What is her major cycle called?
Largest
What are The Ten Largest?
Shapes
Which forms appear often in her work?
Hidden
What did she request about her abstract works?
Show
Which museum's 2018 show drew record crowds?
Death
When did she die?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which country was Hilma af Klint from?
Answer: Sweden
She was born in 1862.
Q2: Where did she study art?
Answer: Stockholm's Royal Academy
She trained as a traditional painter.
Q3: Why is she important to abstract art?
Answer: She painted abstract works before Kandinsky
Her works date from 1906.
Q4: What was The Five?
Answer: A group of women who held séances
They sought spiritual messages.
Q5: What is her major cycle called?
Answer: Paintings for the Temple
It has 193 works.
Q6: What are The Ten Largest?
Answer: Huge paintings about stages of life
Each is over 3 m tall.
Q7: Which forms appear often in her work?
Answer: Spirals and diagrams
Botanical forms appear too.
Q8: What did she request about her abstract works?
Answer: That they stay unseen for 20 years after her death
She felt the world was not ready.
Q9: Which museum's 2018 show drew record crowds?
Answer: Guggenheim in New York
It became its most visited show.
Q10: When did she die?
Answer: 1944
Kandinsky died the same year.

Abstraction Before the Pioneers

Hilma af Klint, born in Sweden in 1862, trained at Stockholm's Royal Academy and worked as a respected painter of landscapes and portraits. In private, she explored spiritualism with The Five, a group of women who held séances seeking messages.

From 1906 she painted bold abstract works, years before Kandinsky's, in a cycle called Paintings for the Temple, with 193 works. The Ten Largest, each over 3 m tall, show stages of life with spirals, petals and diagrams in pinks, blues and oranges.

Believing the world was not ready, she asked that her abstract works stay unseen for 20 years after her death in 1944. Rediscovered later, they reshaped art history. A 2018 Guggenheim exhibition in New York became the museum's most visited show.

What This Quiz Teaches

Art fans will enjoy these questions.

Who she was
What she painted
Why it was hidden
Which forms she used
How she was rediscovered

Did You Know?

She also made botanical drawings.
Her notebooks fill thousands of pages.
A foundation keeps her works.
Films have explored her life.
Her colors were unusually bright.