Simon

Hilma af Klint remained largely unknown for decades, likely due to her deep-seated ties to spiritualism and the occult. Her journey into the spiritual realm intensified in 1880 following the death of her younger sister, Hermina. This loss shifted her focus toward the unseen, and soon, abstraction and symbolism began to dominate her canvases. Drawn to the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky and the Rosicrucian philosophy, she became a member of "The Five"—a group of women dedicated to contacting "High Masters" through séances. Their meetings were highly ritualistic, beginning with prayer and meditation followed by a sermon and an analysis of the New Testament. It was in this transcendental environment that Hilma claimed to receive a divine commission from an angel named Amaliel, who instructed her to create her most famous body of work: the Paintings for the Temple. Working with "The Five," Hilma produced geometric drawings that sought to conceptualize the invis...

How can you buy or sell the sky The warmth of the land If we do not own the freshness of the air How can you buy them?  Every part of the earth is sacred to my people Every shining pine needle Every humming insect The sap carries the memories of the red man We are part of the earth It is part of us The perfumed flowers are our sisters The animals are our brothers This land is sacred to us The water is the blood of our ancestors The rivers are our brothers They carry our canoes and feed our children The white man does not understand our ways His appetite will devour the earth The sight of your cities pains our eyes There is no quiet place No place to hear the unfurling of leaves The rustle of the insect's wings The clatter only seems to insult the ears We do not understand I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes Left by the white man Who shot them from a passing train Whatever happens to the beasts happens to man  All things are connected The earth is our mother If men spit up...