Art Reflection: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA (Summer 2025)

Hilma af Klint is a fascinating woman, and when you look at her art, you can clearly see the inner workings of her mind. She is recognized as one of the earliest artists to practice abstract art in the Western world, and she was a spiritualist who participated in séances in the name of Theosophy—a religious movement that believed in Masters seeking to uncover ancient wisdom and knowledge.

The exhibition What Stands Behind the Flowers was featured at the Museum of Modern Art this past summer, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how af Klint’s works have impacted me. This portfolio of work comes from af Klint's intense study of nature between 1919 and 1920.

Hilma af Klint truly knew how to observe plants. Her watercolor studies reveal a meticulous understanding of nature and an impressive ability to capture it with precision. It feels as though she wasn’t just studying these plants, but almost becoming them—embodying their essence before transmuting them into something more profound.

Something that struck me was how af Klint was able to dissect nature through shape and color. Some of her watercolors and drawings are anatomically representative of plant life, while others are more symbolic. The images to the right and below showcase a kind of harmony and symmetry that I believe af Klint was intentionally striving for.

There’s an outward orientation to these two images, as if they’re envelopes inviting you in. I really love the texture that watercolor brings to the pieces, as well as the use of white space—she didn’t try to cram too much in, and everything feels intentional and delicate.

Her work isn’t purely artistic—it also feels deeply scientific. She creates geometric intersections of shapes, colors, and patterns that resemble a microscopic study of nature. I love that her pieces include written observations and notes, revealing how deeply engaged she was in understanding the world around her. Her curiosity seems to leap off the page. These works also serve as an antithesis to the traditional botanical drawings and paintings being produced during her time.

One of my favorite parts of the exhibition was toward the end, where af Klint’s work moved beyond deep study and precision. Instead of exact renderings or dissections, she began using watercolor to capture the essence of plant life as she perceived it. She aimed to express a plant’s aura, energy, or spirit—an idea that felt entirely new to me. The watercolor below, painted after observing a marigold, beautifully reflects her effort to merge spirituality with nature.

What began as an effort to understand the tangibility of nature evolved into translating it into something intangible—something that could only be perceived by the inner being or the senses. What I loved most about this exhibition was how it revealed af Klint’s evolution as an artist; her intense study and near-obsession with the natural world felt deeply refreshing.

Inherently, as a woman artist, she was breaking boundaries in ways that hadn’t been done before. Her work touches on something primal and profound—the innate human desire to understand the world. I realize that even in my own practice, my subconscious is deeply rooted in the natural world, and af Klint’s work has inspired me to continue viewing life through that same lens.