In 1907, the Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint, member of the Royal Academy, created the first abstract paintings of modern art history, in complete secret, and years before Kandinsky or Mondrian.

Hilma Af Klint practiced spiritism with 4 other women "The 5", Anna Cassel being one of them. The artworks were "automatically" painted, following the guidance of the "High Masters". Hilma painted 193 works "for the Temple" between 1906 and 1915. Since the artist believed that the world was not ready for her work, she kept them hidden and asked in her will that they remained as such for 20 years after her passing. Thanks to the art historian Åke Fant, her art was introduced to an international audience in the 1980's and she had a retrospective at the Guggenheim in NYC in 2018-2019.