Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin (10 April 1877 – 20 August 1959) was an Austrian artist, printmaker, illustrator, and writer of a single novel, The Other Side. Kubin is considered an important exponent of Symbolism and Expressionism.

Biography

Kubin was born in Bohemia in the town of Leitmeritz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Litoměřice). From 1892 to 1896, he was apprenticed to the landscape photographer Alois Beer, although he learned little. In 1896, he attempted suicide on his mother's grave, and his short stint in the Austrian army the following year ended with a nervous breakdown. The aquatint technique used by Klinger and Goya influenced the style of his works of this period, which are mainly ink and wash drawings of fantastical, often macabre subjects. Soon after, having met the publisher Hans von Weber in Munich in 1901, in 1903 the Hans von Weber Portfolio reproduced 15 of Kubin's works on paper as prints, which allowed a wider distribution of his work, and established his fame. According to one contemporary critic, Kubin's work occupied "the darkroom of the modern soul".

From 1906 until his death, he lived a withdrawn life in a Manor-House on a 12th-century estate in Zwickledt, Upper Austria. but he managed to continue working during World War II.

Themes

Kubin’s work is notable for its dark, imaginative vision, populated by motifs of decay, illness, nightmares, and fantastical creatures. Deeply influenced by dreams and the emerging study of the unconscious, particularly The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, Kubin produced works exploring psychological states, often working in intense bursts reportedly linked to fevers and hallucinations.

A prominent theme in his work is the representation of the female body and sexuality. Women are frequently depicted as threatening figures, often portrayed as seductive, dominant, or predatory, presenting female sexuality as a danger. The novel evokes absurdity and claustrophobia. The illustrations for the book were originally intended for The Golem by Gustav Meyrink, but as that book was delayed, Kubin instead worked his illustrations into his own novel. It has achieved cult status, receiving praise from Jeff VanderMeer and other writers.

Drawings sold under duress

In 2016, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Munich restituted, to the heirs of Max and Hertha Morgenstern, 16 drawings by Kubin which had been sold under duress in Vienna in July 1938 as a result of Nazi persecution of Jews following Austria's Anschluss with Nazi Germany. Lenbachhaus had acquired them from Kurt Otte, a Kubin collector in Hamburg in 1971.

The German Lost Art Foundation lists 24 artworks by Kubin in its database, many of which are from the Found-Object Reports from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden which launched Nazi-era provenance research in 2008.

Honours and awards

  • City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts (1950)
  • Grand Austrian State Prize for Visual Art (1951)
  • Austrian Medal for Science and Art (1957)
  • Gustav Klimt badge as an honorary member of the Vienna Secession

Collections

  • Kubin's Dance of Death and Other Drawings (1973) (art collection) ()
  • The Life and Art of Alfred Kubin (2017) (autobiography) ()

<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">

File:Der Staat by Alfred Kubin (1899-1900).jpg|The State (1899–1900)

File:Alfred Kubin - Dolmen, c. 1900-1902 - Google Art Project.jpg|Dolmen (c. 1900–1902); Indian ink, wash, spray paint, and white body color; Albertina, Vienna

File:Jede nacht besucht uns ein traum.jpg|A Dream Visits Us Every Night (1900)

File:The past forgotten swallowed.jpg|The Past Forgotten Swallowed (1901)

File:The lady on the horse.jpg|The Lady on the Horse (1901); pen, ink, wash and spray

File:The last king.jpg|The Last King (1902)

File:The moment of birth.jpg|The Moment of Birth (1902)

File:Siberian fairy tale.jpg|Siberian Fairy Tale (1902)

File:Angst by Alfred Kubin.jpg|Angst (1903)

File:Black mass.jpg|Black Mass (1905)

</gallery>

See also

  • List of Austrian artists and architects
  • List of Austrians

Notes

References

  • Arnason, H. H., & Wheeler, D. (1986). History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
  • Assman, Peter Alfred Kubin 1877–1959. Exhibition catalogue Brussels (Ixelles) 1997
  • Alfred Kubin. Exhibition catalogue Neue Galerie New York 2008
  • Romana Schuler Alfred Kubin, Aus meinem Reich. Exhibition catalogue Leopold Museum Vienna 2003
  • Traumgestalten. 100 Meisterwerke aus dem Besitz der Graphischen Sammlung Albertina. Vienna 1990
  • www.alfred-kubin.com (in German)
  • Stefan Üner: Alfred Kubin. Bewusst in Unbewusste, in: Parnass, Vienna 2019
  • Water Spirit: oil painting by Alfred Kubin
  • Die Blaetter mit dem Tod: book of prints by Alfred Kubin at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York
  • More than 200 paintings and drawings by Alfred Kubin