Alfred Kubin

Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin (10 April 1877 – 20 August 1959) was an Austrian
Alfred Kubin
printmaker, illustrator, and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important
representative of Symbolism and Expressionism.

Contents
Profile
Biography
Honours and awards
Literary works
Gallery
See also
Notes
References
External links Born Alfred Leopold Isidor
Kubin
10 April 1877
Profile Litoměřice
Died 20 August 1959
(aged 82)
Biography Zwickledt, Wernstein
Kubin was born in Bohemia in the town of Leitmeritz, Austro-Hungarian Empire am Inn
(now Litoměřice). From 1892 to 1896, he was apprenticed to the landscape Nationality Austrian
photographer Alois Beer, although he learned little.[1] In 1896, he attempted suicide
Education Munich Academy
on his mother's grave, and his short stint in the Austrian army the following year
ended with a nervous breakdown.[1] In 1898, Kubin began a period of artistic study Known for Painting
at a private academy run by the painter Ludwig Schmitt-Reutte, before enrolling at Movement Symbolism,
the Munich Academy in 1899, without finishing his studies there. In Munich, Kubin Expressionism
discovered the works of Odilon Redon, Edvard Munch, James Ensor, Henry de
Groux, and Félicien Rops. He was profoundly affected by the prints of Max Klinger, and later recounted: "Here a new art was thrown
open to me, which offered free play for the imaginative expression of every conceivable world of feeling. Before putting the
engravings away I swore that I would dedicate my life to the creation of similar works".[2] 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.[1] Kubin produced a small number of oil paintings in the years between 1902 and 1910, but thereafter his output consisted
of pen and ink drawings, watercolors, and lithographs. In 1911, he became associated with the Blaue Reiter group, and exhibited with
them in the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin in 1913.[2] After that time, he lost contact with the artistic avant-garde.

Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism and is noted for dark, spectral, symbolic fantasies,
often assembled into thematic series of drawings. Like Oskar Kokoschka and Albert Paris Gütersloh, Kubin had both artistic and
literary talent. He illustrated the works of Edgar Allan Poe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others. Kubin also
illustrated the German fantasy magazine Der Orchideengarten.[3][4] The best known of Kubin's own books is Die andere Seite (The
Other Side) (1909), a fantastic novel set in an oppressive imaginary land. The Other Side has an atmosphere of claustrophobic
absurdity reminiscent of the writings of Franz Kafka, who admired Die andere Seite.[4][5] The illustrations for Die andere Seite were
originally intended for The Golem by Gustav Meyrink, but as that book was delayed Kubin instead worked his illustrations into his
own novel.[3]

From 1906 until his death, he lived a withdrawn life in a small castle on a 12th-century estate in Zwickledt, Upper Austria.[4] In
1938, at the Anschluss of Austria and Nazi Germany, his work was declaredentartete Kunst or "degenerate art,"[6] but he managed to
continue working duringWorld War II.

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 theVienna Secession

Literary works
The Other Side (1909)
The Looking Box (1925)
Of the Desk of a Draughtsman(1939)
Adventure of an Indication Feather/Spring(1941)
Sober Balladen (1949)
Evening-red (1950)
Fantasies in the Boehmerwald(1951)
Daemons and Night Faces(1959) (autobiography)

Gallery

Dolmen (c. 1900-1902) Jede nacht besucht uns The Past Forgotten Angst (1903)
ein traum (1900) Swallowed (1901)

See also
List of Austrian artists and architects
List of Austrians

Notes
1. Oxford Art Online
2. Arnason & Wheeler 1986, p. 88.
3. Siegfried Schödel, Studien zu den phantastischen Erzählungen Gustav Meyrinks
, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg,
1965, (p.27).
 4. Rosenberg, Karen. 15 October 2008.Mapping the Shadowy Corners of the Subconscious(https://www.nytimes.com/
2008/10/16/arts/design/16neue.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22alfred%20kubin%22%20+%20zwickeldt%22&st=cse) .
The New York Times. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
5. Franz Rottensteiner, The Fantasy Book:an illustrated history from Dracula to olkien
T (p. 143) Collier Books, 1978.
ISBN 0-02-053560-0
6. Karl-Heinz Meissner, Alfred Kubin, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München, Edition Spangenberg, 1990
(p.114).

References
Arnason, H. H., & Wheeler, D. (1986). History of modern art: Painting, sculpture, architecture, photography
.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice -Hall.ISBN 9780133903607
Assman, Peter Alfred Kubin 1877–1959Exhibition catalogue Brussels (Ixelles) 1997
Alfred Kubin Exhibition catalogue Neue Galerie New Y ork 2008
Romana Schuler Alfred Kubin, Aus meinem ReichExhibition catalogue Leopold Museum Vienna 2003
Traumgestalten. 100 Meisterwerke aus demBesitz der Graphischen Sammlung AlbertinaVienna 1990

External links
Works by Alfred Kubin at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Alfred Kubinat Internet Archive
www.alfred-kubin.com (in German)
Water Spirit: oil painting by Alfred Kubin
More than 200 paintings and drawings by Alfred Kubin
Alfred Kubin at Library of Congress Authorities, with 110 catalogue records

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Kubin&oldid=867671460

"

This page was last edited on 7 November 2018, at 07:06(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.