The Museum of Modern Art in New York is presenting Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers, an exhibition dedicated to the Swedish artist’s exploration of nature, spirituality, and abstraction, open until September 27, 2025. This major presentation highlights MoMA’s recent acquisition of Nature Studies, a portfolio of 46 botanical drawings by Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), which is being shown for the first time.

Af Klint, widely recognised as a pioneer of abstract art, brought an innovative approach to the natural world by blending scientific observation with spiritual inquiry. The Nature Studies portfolio reveals her fascination with Sweden’s flora, featuring intricate plant renderings paired with abstract diagrams—such as sunflowers alongside concentric circles, narcissus framed by colourful pinwheels, and blossoms juxtaposed with rhythmic patterns of dots and lines. Through these works, af Klint aimed to uncover, as she described it, “what stands behind the flowers,” linking visible forms to hidden spiritual dimensions.

The exhibition places these drawings within a broader period of transformation in af Klint’s artistic journey. Between 1917 and 1922, she shifted from working under spiritual guidance to pursuing self-directed study, a change reflected in both her abstract diagrammatic works and her meticulous botanical studies. Key loans from the Hilma af Klint Foundation include the Atom series of 1917, which introduces her distinctive symbolic language, and the later series On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees, in which vibrant wet-on-wet watercolours convey the mystical vitality of plants.

A groundbreaking discovery adds further depth to the show: seven previously unknown botanical drawings by af Klint, depicting mushroom species and commissioned by Swedish mycologist M. A. Lindblad. Recently found in the archives of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, these works are exhibited in the United States for the first time, underscoring the artist’s scientific precision alongside her visionary art.

To accompany the exhibition, MoMA is publishing an illustrated catalogue, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, featuring essays on her imagery, techniques, and botanical knowledge. A limited-edition facsimile of the entire portfolio will also be released, offering collectors an unprecedented opportunity to experience these works at full scale.

Hilma af Klint’s art continues to challenge conventional narratives of modernism. By merging natural observation with spiritual insight, she invites viewers to look beyond appearances and discover the hidden forces shaping life—a message as vital today as it was a century ago.

“Hilma af Klint’s art invites us to look closely, to see what lies beyond the visible,” says Jodi Hauptman, the exhibition’s organiser. “In a time when early modernism embraced speed and technology, af Klint found meaning in nature’s quiet revelations.”