Hilma af Klint’s Botanical Drawings Now On View For the First Time

Installation view of “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

On January 7, 1917, Hilma af Klint asked herself a critical question: “How am I to find the courage to execute such an enormous task as to try to give an explanation of the ground’s vegetation?” The enormity of that task would define af Klint’s practice for years to come, propelling her away from pure abstraction and toward botanical illustration. These drawings reveal yet another dimension to the Swedish artist’s work, capturing her profound awareness of, and attunement with, her country’s natural surroundings. Over a century after their creation, those drawings are finally being showcased for the first time.

Currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers gathers together the artist’s Nature Studies portfolio in one comprehensive exhibition. The portfolio spans 46 botanical drawings, produced by af Klint during the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, and depicts everything from sunflowers and poppies to tree blossoms and even mushrooms. At first, af Klint’s embrace of natural realism may come as a surprise, but the exhibition does an excellent job of tracing how, exactly, she arrived at the style, beginning with one particular series.

Just two days after musing about the “enormous task” ahead of her, af Klint began the groundwork for it, namely The Atom Series. The project seeks to express the atom’s structure and energy through geometric modules, each divided into sections with varying ornamentation and colors. These drawings retain hints of af Klint’s spiritual underpinnings, resembling earlier work such as her 1915 oil painting The Swan No. 17. The Atom Series also reflects the artist’s staunch belief in nature’s dramatic influence upon the human condition, and how that relationship begins at the most microscopic and fundamental level. The atom, after all, “finds within itself Truth and Justice,” according to the artist.

Nature Studies emerged later, but was still a logical evolution from The Atom Series. Though departing even further from the abstractionism for which she’s known, af Klint’s botanical illustrations are rendered just as sensitively, exploiting the softness of watercolor. One drawing of a common lilac, for instance, leans into the medium’s transparency, representing the flower’s white buds through delicate, meticulously placed layers. Another drawing features bindweeds and pinesap, both perfectly placed on the page to achieve compositional harmony. These works are also accompanied by enigmatic diagrams, including a pinwheel of primary colors and concentric circles, to unveil what “stands behind the flowers,” in af Klint’s words.

Altogether, the exhibition makes its scope clear: it’s a nostalgic and singular glimpse into Sweden’s flora, seen through one of the world’s most pioneering artists. What Stands Behind the Flowers also includes af Klint’s watercolors of bleak winters and breezy summers, alongside her personal notebooks and botanical textbooks from the 19th and 20th centuries.

“If we could see all the nuances of the flower world,” af Klint once remarked, “it would be of great interest for the future.” Indeed, the artist’s drawings accomplish just that. Here in the future, decades later, we’re not only interested in what af Klint has to say—we’re enchanted by it.

Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers is on view at MoMA through September 27, 2025.

In 1919 and 1920, Hilma af Klint created dozens of botanical illustrations. They’re now being showcased for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Hilma af Klint, “Tulipa sp. (Tulip),” sheet 35 from the portfolio Nature Studies, 1920. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper. (Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022)

Installation view of “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

Installation view of “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (Photo: Eva Baron/My Modern Met)

Titled Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, the exhibition gathers 46 botanical drawings by the artist, revealing her enduring fascination with the natural world.

Hilma af Klint, “Probably Agaricus bisporus (Cultivated mushroom),” c. 1893. Watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink on paper. (Courtesy of MoMA and Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, M.A. Lindblad Archive)

Installation view of “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

Hilma af Klint, “Pines in Winter Landscape,” n.d. Watercolor on paper. (Courtesy of MoMA and the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm)

Hilma af Klint, “Tilia × europaea (Common Linden),” Sheet 22 from the portfolio Nature Studies, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper. (Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022)

The exhibition is on view at MoMA through September 27, 2025.

Hilma af Klint, “Helianthus annuus (Common Sunflower),” Sheet 27 from the portfolio Nature Studies, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper. (Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022)

Installation view of “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. (Photo: Eva Baron/My Modern Met)

Hilma af Klint, “No. 8 from The Atom Series,” 1917. Watercolor, graphite, and metallic paint on paper. (Courtesy of MoMA and the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm)