Alfred Kubin
Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin (
April 10,
1877 –
August 20,
1959) was an
Austrian
Expressionist illustrator and occasional
writer of
Czech ancestry.
Kubin was born in
Bohemia in the town of
Leitmeritz, which was then part of the
Austro-Hungarian empire. From
1898 to
1901, Kubin studied at the art school
Schmitt Reutte and at the
Munich Academy. He 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
1912, he became associated with the
Blaue Reiter group. He is considered an important representative of Expressionism, 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 works by
Edgar Allan Poe,
E.T.A. Hoffmann,
Fyodor Dostoevsky and others. He was also the author of several books, the best known being his
novel Die Andere Seite (
The Other Side) (
1909), an
apocalyptic/
dystopic fantasy with an atmosphere of
claustrophobic absurdity reminiscent of the later writings of
Franz Kafka.
His literary works also include:
*
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).
From 1906 until his death, he lived a withdrawn life in a twelfth century castle in
Zwickledt. Kubin was awarded the
Great Austrian State Prize in 1951, and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in
1957.
*Die Andere Seite. ISBN 3499137712
*A. Marks, the Illustrator A.Kubin, union catalog of his illustrations and book-artistic work, 1978
*G. of Zon, Word and Picture, 1991; Upper Austrian national gallery (Hg), A. Kubin 1877-1959, 1995 (with list of works)
*P. Assmann and A. Hoberg, A. Kubin, art relations, 1995; A. Hoberg and Ith angel man, A.Kubin - the lithographic work, 1999; New German Biographie.
*
List of Austrian artists and architects*
List of Austrians*
Dedication Page*
Water Spirit- Oil painting
