daily stream: (re)discover the mysterious work of a pioneering woman artist
2020’s *Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint* is on Kanopy in the US and Curzon Home Cinema in the UK
Why not commemorate International Women’s Day today with a documentary by a female filmmaker — Halina Dyrschka — about one of the great injustices against a woman artist? 2020’s Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint introduces us to an art pioneer who, though her work is now being rediscovered, continues to be criminally overlooked or diminished. From my review:
She didn’t merely create stunning works of abstract art: she invented abstract art. Her first abstract canvas is dated 1906, four years before Wassily Kandinsky’s, who is still generally considered the earliest abstract painter.
[snip]
I love how Dyrschka juxtaposes af Klint’s work with later, sometimes decades later, work by men considered revolutionary geniuses of conceptual, nonrepresentational art — Kandinsky, of course, who may have in fact straight up stolen from her; Albers; Klee; Mondrian; Warhol! — in a way that drips with quiet visual sarcasm, a “can you believe this shit” sort of exasperation. Dyrschka and her on-camera experts also have major side-eye for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which has literally written the history on abstract art, and continues to insist that, you know, maybe af Klint wasn’t really all that important a voice after all?
And for more films by female directors, be sure to check out the Directed by Women section at FlickFilosopher.com.
US: stream at Kanopy; rent/buy at Prime and Apple TV
UK: rent at Curzon Home Cinema; rent/buy at Prime and Apple TV
See Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
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