The Ten Largest, No. 3, Youth, Group IV
In the 1890s, Hilma af Klint began meeting regularly with a group of female artists who together became known as “The Five”. The Five practiced various forms of spiritualism, believing they could communicate with a higher consciousness. Af Klint thought herself directed by this otherworldly force to create a group of paintings called The Ten Largest for “The Temple”, an entity never wholly defined or understood. Standing at a colossal 10 feet high and 8 feet wide, each painting in the series represents a different phase of life from early childhood to old age.
No. 3 depicts the transitional period of youth. Tonally, the series moves through a clear cycle of stylistic progression. While the early childhood works appear rather cellular with an emphasis on biological forms, youth is bright and dynamic. With swirling movement and colorful clusters of organic shapes, No. 3 is less diagrammatic than the more meditative, No. 7, Adulthood. Here, youth flourishes in a state of flux. Stylistically unbound by the artistic conventions of the time, No. 3 is one of the first examples of abstract art.
