A white swan and a black swan meet beak to beak on the divide

The canvas is halved: black above, white below. Against the black, a white swan flies with wings spread and neck curving down; against the white, a black swan rises with wings spread and neck curving up. Their beaks meet exactly on the horizontal line where the two fields divide, and each bird's feet — small triangles of pale blue — cross into the other's territory. Painted in 1915 as the opening work of af Klint's The Swan series, Group IX/SUW: the alchemical union of opposites, made a century before most viewers were ready to see it.

Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) painted the first Western abstract canvases in 1906 — years before Kandinsky, Mondrian or Malevich — as messages received in séance, guided by beings she called the High Masters. Convinced the world was not ready, she forbade their exhibition until twenty years after her death. They were not properly shown until 1986, and have since rewritten the history of modern art.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.