The Other Side of Eros in the Art of Alfred Kubin

The more you look at the works of the Austrian artist Alfred Kubin (1877-1959), the more you feel trapped in another person's nightmare that won't end unless the dreamer wakes up; yet, if he does, it may mean you'll have to vanish. Kubin is known as an illustrator of Hoffman, Poe, and Dostoevsky, though he also was a writer. The nightmarish symbolism of this visionary was praised by masters like Kafka and Kandinsky; his watercolors, lithographs, and ink drawings resemble the works of Odilon Redon and Felicien Rops, though the impression they leave seems even more unsettling. Some grotesque figures may look familiar as they preempted those from Bacon's paintings for several decades.

Fig. 1. Alfred Kubin, 1904 (veryimportantlot.com)

Fig. 2. Death Jumpб, 1902 (wikiart.org)

Fig. 3. Crucified Snake Man (lenbachhaus.de)

Fig. 4. bonobo.net

Fig. 5. Die Grosse Boa (wordpress.com)

Fig. 6. The Polar Bear, 1901-1902 (moma.org)

Fig. 7. Left: Kubin, Danger, 1901; right: Francis Bacon, The study for a figure at the base of a crucifixion, 1944 (torranceartmuseum.com)

Fig.7a

Fig.7b

A Bad Student, a Poor Photographer, and a Terrible Soldier

Alfred Kubin was born in Bohemia into the family of a military officer. His mother was a musically gifted woman who died of tuberculosis when Kubin was ten. This traumatic experience became the ground from which his visionary art stemmed. According to some biographers, Kubin even attempted suicide at the gravesite of his mother at nineteen. Surrounded by his dreams, the boy didn't pay much attention to his studies. In 1890, he was expelled from the gymnasium for poor progress two years after the entrance. From 1891 to 1892, he attended Salzburg Stade trade college, yet failed again. For the following four years, Kubin was an apprentice of his uncle, photographer Alois Beer, also to no avail. All these attempts eventually led him to a nervous breakdown in 1897, which happened again after four months of military service. Only in 1899 did Kubin enroll successfully at the München Art School.

Fig. 8. Male’s arm with nude female (artnet.com)

Fig. 9. Kraken on a rock (artnet.com)

Fig. 10. Der Werwolf (lenbachhaus.de)

Fig. 11. Strange Ride (sacredsurreal.com)

The Prosperous Decadent

In München, which was considered the art capital of Germany at the time, Kubin's aesthetic began to take shape. There, he got acquainted with the works of Redon, Rops, Munch, Klinger, and others. The artist's dark visions gained popularity in the pre-apocalyptic atmosphere of fin de siècle. In 1904, he married the sister of the writer Oscar Schmitz. She happened to be a wealthy widow, which allowed him to buy a small estate, Zwickledt, at his birthplace two years later. One may wonder what their intimate and financial relationships were like. Yet, Kubin's works, especially the novel "The Other Side," have a touch of misogyny stemming basically from the biblical outlook on the first woman.

Fig. 12. Back to the Womb, 1902 (darkermagazine.ru)

In the exclusive (very extensive) Premium version of the article, among other things, Kubin's admiration of the author of the infamous " Gender and Character," a profound analysis Kubin's fantastical novel Die Andere Seite (The Other Side), and (MUCH) much more.

Click HERE for Satan servants and the spirit of Salem in the pictures of Félicien Rops

Sources: Wikipedia.org; A. Kubin. The Other Side; A.V. Kushnareva. Life of the Clairvoyant of Decadence: Introduction in the Biography of Alfred Kubin; M.V. Zhukova Die Andere Seite of Alfted Kubin and the German grotesque literature at the turn of the 19th century

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