Fame and Prestige: necessary and decisive accomplices in the case of Hilma af Klint

Abstract

This article examines the problematic status as a pioneer of abstract art of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. Her case allows us to reflect simultaneously on two types of important contacts in the recognition process of the artist of the twentieth century. On the one hand, the network of personal contacts, and, on the other, the network of institutional contacts as museums. The starting point are the different positions held by the MoMA in the exhibition Inventing abstraction, 1910-1925, and by the Moderna Museet of Stockholm in the show Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction. The study of the positions of proponents and opponents leads to the conclusion that, until now, Hilma af Klint has had the necessary accomplices to get her work known, exhibited and even, inside the art world, become somewhat famous. Time will tell, and sociological analysis suggests short term negative results, if in the future she will have the decisive accomplices for obtaining the prestige of being considered mostly as a pioneer of abstract art.