Art History: Re-written

Julia Voss encountered Hilma af Klint’s work ten years ago in Stockholm. Since then, she has learned Swedish and visited many archives in Europe to conduct research on Klint and has carefully analyzed the artist’s 125 notebooks. This spring, S. Fischer published Voss‘ biography on HILMA AF KLINT. THE WORLD IN ASTONISHMENT which went onto the shortlist for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2020. This is the very first biography on the artist who was the first to paint abstractly and who has turned into a major rediscovery in art history in recent years with exhibitions at the Lenbachhaus, Munich, Stockholm, Helsinki, London – and upcoming ones in Paris and Amsterdam. Her solo exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York in fall 2019 broke visitor records and was up until now the most visited exhibition at the museum.

Rights sold to WEL (Chicago UP), ROK (Pungwoldaong), S (Bonniers)

Don’t miss the two-page review in ZEIT. LITERATUR this month:

»Voss‘ science prose is masterful. In fluent and easy-to-grasp writing the Darwin expert connects social history, art history and the history of science arriving at a literary academic hybrid with almost novel-like expressions. Voss presents an abundance of archive material she has discovered which may explain the length. Though written towards a broad audience, it is not the pleasure of reading that is at the heart of this project but scientific wholeness.« – Jörg Scheller, Die Zeit

https://www.zeit.de/2020/12/hilma-af-klint-julia-voss-biografie