Hilma af Klint painting may set new price record
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Bukowskis auction house in Stockholm, Sweden, will offer a painting by Hilma af Klint on November 19, estimating its value between SEK6m and SEK8m, roughly $600,000 to $800,000.
The oil and graphite on canvas, titled Ser III No. 5, last changed hands in 1995 when a private collector purchased it after the Hilma af Klint Foundation deaccessioned it.
Af Klint created the work in January 1920 during a productive period where she completed 85 paintings in a few months, but she later paused painting to study colour theory before returning to looser watercolour techniques. The Hilma af Klint Foundation, established in 1972, usually limits the availability of af Klint’s abstract paintings on the art market, with earlier landscape paintings appearing at auction more often. This scarcity keeps the artist’s auction record relatively low at $165,825, set in 2019.
Louise Wrede of Bukowskis notes that few of af Klint’s abstract paintings have been offered at auction, as the foundation controls the supply. Af Klint (1862 to 1944) gained international recognition later in her life. A 1986 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art introduced her work to a broader audience, and a 2018 show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York became the museum’s most visited exhibition ever with over 600,000 attendees.
Recent exhibitions, including one at the Grand Palais in Paris and another at the National Gallery of Ireland, suggest continued interest in her art.
