a pioneer of abstract art.

af Klint began working as an artist in Sweden

around the turn of the 20th century.

She belonged to the first generation of women

to train at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm

and became a successful

portraitist and landscape painter.

She was interested in science, maths, nature

and, like many artists and thinkers

at the time, spiritualism.

af Klint met regularly with four women

for prayer, seances and meditation.

They called themselves "The Five."

It was during these meetings

that af Klint believed

she was called upon by spirits

who guided and inspired her

to create new images.

The results were unlike

anything seen in art at the time.

Otherworldly shapes,

cryptic symbols and words

filled giant canvases

in radiant colour combinations.

Even Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich,

the artists historically

credited with making the first

European abstract images,

were yet to make this creative leap.

But af Klint's attempts

to find a receptive audience were unsuccessful.

She believed her paintings

contained messages for all humanity,

but that only a future audience

would understand them.

She left instructions for them

to be hidden from public view until

at least 20 years after her death.

af Klint left behind over 125 notebooks

and more than a thousand artworks,

an extraordinary artistic legacy.

Their re-discovery gives us,

now, the chance to unravel

the enigma of Hilma af Klint.

and to consider how her life's work

changes the story of modern art.