Press Release  April 22, 2019

Hilma af Klint Becomes Most-Visited Exhibition in Guggenheim's History

David Heald

Installation view: Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 12, 2018–April 23, 2019

(NEW YORK, NY)—The exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future has attracted more than 600,000 visitors since its opening, making it the most-visited show in the history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The survey of Hilma af Klint’s work is the first major solo exhibition in the United States devoted to the Swedish artist.

“For me, the 2018–19 art season will always belong to the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). I say this simply as a measure of the psychic and historical shift caused by the Guggenheim Museum’s extraordinary full-dress retrospective of her nearly 40-year career.” —Roberta Smith, The New York Times

    Albin Dahlström, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm

    Hilma af Klint, Group X, No. 1, Altarpiece (Grupp X, nr 1, Altarbild), 1915 from Altarpieces (Altarbilder). Oil and metal leaf on canvas, 237.5 x 179.5 cm. The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.

    The concurrent and related exhibition, R. H. Quaytman: + x, Chapter 34, featuring new works by contemporary artist R. H. Quaytman, is also on view through April 23.

    For the final days of Hilma af Klint Paintings for the Future, the museum is open for extended hours, 10 am–8 pm, from Friday, April 19, through Tuesday, April 23. On Saturdays, beginning at 5 pm, the museum hosts Pay What You Wish.

    • More than 600,000 visitors have attended Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, the highest recorded attendance figure for a single exhibition in the museum’s history.
    • Guggenheim Museum Membership has increased 34% since the exhibition opened in October.
    • More than 30,000 copies of the exhibition catalogue have been sold, surpassing the previous record set by the 2009 catalogue Kandinsky.
    • Since October 2018, Hilma af Klint-inspired products in the Guggenheim Store have accounted for 42% of total store sales.

    Subscribe to our free e-letter!

    Webform