The Parcifal Series, 1916

Hilma af Klint

Narrator: After concluding the Paintings for the Temple, Hilma af Klint continued using images and words to explore and try to understand the meaning of the messages she received.

The series Parcifal from 1916 consists of 144 smaller paintings. According to the medieval legend, Parsifal was one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table who went in search of the Holy Grail. The Grail narrative is said to represent a search for spiritual knowledge, and the legend of Parsifal is a common element in the teaching at the anthroposophical Waldorf schools. The composer Richard Wagner also used the theme in his eponymous opera from 1882. There must have been widespread interest in the legend at the time, because Wagner’s Parsifal was performed at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in the spring of 1917, that is one year after Hilma af Klint concluded her series.

In the first image of the series we embark on a journey through darkness towards the white light at the centre of the spiral. In this exhibition we present a selection from the Parcifal series, including geometric and completely monochromatic pictures. Some of them include different words denoting direction, sometimes in mirror writing or upside-down, and others have seed-like shapes painted in the middle of the work.