The Art of Seeing the Invisible
On Hilma af Klint and Other Visionaries

a symposium at Moderna Museet - Auditorium
Exercisplan - 11149 Stockholm, Schweden

arranged by Ax:son Johnson Foundation


Friday May 24th

Introduction to the World View at the Turn of the 20th Century
A Historical View of the Ideas

15.30
REGISTRATION

16.00
Welcome
Daniel Birnbaum, Moderna Museet

16.05
Welcome
Louise Belfrage, Ax:son Johnson Foundation

16.10
Introduction
Mark Isitt, moderator

16.15
Wouter J. Hanegraaff
From Late Antiquity until Today: The History of Occult Ideas in the West
and Their Reception

16.35
Raphael Rosenberg
How to Depict Invisible Things? Amimetic Images before Abstract Art

16.55
Gary Lachman
Modernity and the Occult

17.15
Helmut Zander
Rudolf Steiner and the Zeitgeist around 1900 - Theosophy and
Anthroposophy as the Contexts of Hilma af Klint's Oeuvre

17.35
Discussion: Wouter Hanegraaff, Raphael Rosenberg, Gary Lachman and
Helmut Zander led by moderator

18.05
Closing remarks


Saturday May 25th

Electricity, Avant-Garde and Abstraction
New Influences in Science and Art

10.15
Introduction
Mark Isitt, moderator

10.20
Stephen Kern
Fin-de-Siècle Europe and Hilma af Klint: Technology, Nihilism and
Abstraction

10.40
Marco Pasi
Western Esotericism and Modern Artistic Creativity

11.00
COFFEE BREAK

11.30
Tessel Bauduin
The Automatic Message - Automatism and the Avant-Garde

11.50
Victoria Ferentinou
Theosophy, Women Artists and Modernism: The Case of Ithell Colquhoun

12.10
Discussion: Stephen Kern, Marco Pasi, Tessel Bauduin and Victoria
Ferentinou led by moderator

12.40
LUNCH BREAK


Hilma af Klint and Her Contemporaries

14.15
Introduction
Mark Isitt, moderator

14.20
Christoph Wagner
Occultism and Abstract Art: Kandinsky, Itten, Malevich

14.40
Andrei Nakov
The Spiritual Foundations of Suprematism

15.00
Marty Bax
Mondrian and the Legacy of Western Esotericism

15.20
COFFEE BREAK

15.50
David Lomas
The Meaning of "Life": Biology and Abstraction

16.10
Iris Müller-Westermann
Hilma af Klint and the Spirit of Her Time

16.30
Briony Fer
Abstraction and Hilma af Klint

16.50
Respondent: Thierry de Duve

17.05
Discussion: Christoph Wagner, Andrei Nakov, Marty Bax, David Lomas, Iris
Müller-Westerman, Briony Fer and Thierry de Duve led by moderator

17.35
Concluding remarks