This publication accompanies the exhibition Alfred Kubin Drawings, 1897-1909, which features more than 100 works on paper by the artist. On view at the Neue Galerie from September 25, 2008, through January 26, 2009, this is the first major Kubin exhibition ever held in the United States, and it focuses on his early, often nightmarish drawings, watercolors, and lithographs. The exhibition is organized by Annegret Hoberg, curator of the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) created drawings that plumb the depths of the shadow world of the human subconscious, with its unguarded impulses and fears. Though a contemporary and fellow countryman of artist Gustav Klimt and designer Josef Hoffmann, Kubin eschewed the decorative impulses found in their work. Instead, inspired by the art of Francisco Goya, Felicien Rops, Max Klinger, James Ensor, and Edvard Munch, he produced dark, hallucinatory visions of violence and eroticism.

Literature served as an inspiration as well, and Kubin drew from the masterpieces of Edgar Allan Poe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Nikolai Gogol. In 1908, he wrote and illustrated a bizarre novel called The Other Side.

Most Kubin drawings were rendered on the back of Katasterpapier, or land register paper, which was used for geographical mapping. Kubin’s father was a land surveyor for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and provided his son with a plentiful supply of the paper he used. It is a heavy and absorbent handmade paper that the artist appreciated because it allowed the ink to fuse with the surface. Kubin insisted that he could not work on traditional smooth, thin paper, and throughout his life he sought this unusual material.

This publication accompanies the exhibition Alfred Kubin Drawings, 1897-1909, which features more than 100 works on paper by the artist. On view at the Neue Galerie from September 25, 2008, through January 26, 2009, this is the first major Kubin exhibition ever held in the United States, and it focuses on his early, often nightmarish drawings, watercolors, and lithographs. The exhibition is organized by Annegret Hoberg, curator of the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Essays examine the artist’s early career; his status as a literary figure; and his development of a form of Modernism that ran counter to prevailing trends. The more than 100 illustrations reveal an artist who was able to articulate our darkest nightmares with frightening clarity.

RONALD S. LAUDER AND RENEE PRICE

Foreword

ANNEGRET HOBERG

Alfred Kubin

The Early Work up to 1909

KLAUS ALBRECHT SCHRODER

Alfred Kubin; or, The Cruelty of Images

PETER ASSMANN

Artistic Sources for Another Modernism

Alfred Kubin and His Visual Work

ANOREAS GEYER

"...perhaps I am a writer..."

Alfred Kubin as Literary Figure

WERNER HOFMANN

The "Other Side" of Modernity

OLAF PETERS

Demons of Dust

Alfred Kubin between Viennese Modernism and Conservative Revolution

Plates

Checklist

Biography

Index of Names

Photograph and Copyright Credits