ABSTRACT CREATION AND HELENA BLAVATSKY

Although it is inevitable, making judgments about someone based on a first impression is a double-edged sword. It is not always possible to know all the facets of people and we are left with a fragment, an incomplete idea. We do not realize that behind someone who seems like a charlatan, we can find a mind full of knowledge and incredible and revealing ideas.

This is how life was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). Born in a province of the former Russian Empire, Blavatsky was loved by many but repudiated by more. She is considered an exponent of esotericism and occultism; but she was also a revolutionary writer and theosophist who did not accept the norms of the society in which she lived.

In 1875, Madame Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott -a U.S. colonel - founded the Theosophical Societyan esoteric doctrine whose premise stated that "there is no religion superior to truth". Hence Blavatsky affirmed that theosophy is synonymous with eternal truth. He was only 59 years old, Madame Blavatsky died more than a century ago; but his contributions in all fields are still present. According to his biographers, his ideas influenced religion, science, politics, culture and art.

However, few know that abstract art was formed to some extent thanks to the growing interest that artists showed for mysticism and occultism; and of course, for the spiritualist ideas embodied in the texts of the Russian theosophist. Abstract art as we know and admire it today emerged at the end of the 19th century. It is an artistic movement with which we can marvel thanks to its simplicity. It is capable of dispensing with all figurative elements, as it reduces representation to chromatic, formal and structural aspects. It presents images with undefined forms, composed of lines, dots and vibrant colors.

It was in the 1890s when abstract artists began to take an interest in theosophy -which at that time was flourishing as a cult- because they were in a period of transition and found in the statements of this spiritual movement suggestive, wonderful and flexible ideas that helped them to establish the theoretical foundations of abstract art, which ended up being a manifestation of spiritual ideals.

Blavastky did not establish specific formulas regarding art, but his writings served as a basis for the founders of the abstract movement -such as Wasilly Kandinsky, Frantisek Kupka, Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich- take the foundations of spirituality that allowed them to access and understand ancient wisdom, the cosmic principles of human existence and the natural world. In this way they could communicate the hidden truths behind the symbols of art.