Alfred Kubin
The Aesthetics of Evil
Until 12 January 2025
ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA
This exhibition reveals the perspective of Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) on all that is evil—the dominant theme of his life and works. In Kubin’s output, evil’s aesthetic reveal’s itself as a counterpart to that of the idyllic, of deliberate disregard for a hideous reality. The artist’s deeply pessimistic mindset moved him to concentrate near-exclusively on the human psyche’s darker aspects in his graphic explorations. He felt defenseless in the face of eerie, dream-apparitions and his pronounced fear of the feminine, of sexuality, of the night, and of being at fate’s mercy. To Kubin, trapped in his dark visions, evil seemed inexhaustible and life-determining.
Alfred Kubin’s unbroken relevance today is evidenced by a great many of his pictorial themes, which are indeed quite current: war games, prisoners, torture, executioners, refugees, persecuted figures, plagues, and pandemics. A great many of his works revolve around the uncanny, around nightmares of demons, unearthly hybrid beings, grotesques, angels of death, and scenes of hell—in short, around that which lies in wait for us on “the other side.” Alfred Kubin pursued these visions in a breathtaking manner that made him one of the 20th century’s most outstanding graphic artists.
This exhibition draws on the ALBERTINA Museum’s extensive holdings of around 1,800 drawings by the artist.
On view at the ALBERTINA MODERN Museum from 14 August 2024 until 12 January 2025.
Alfred Kubin | The Egg, ca 1901/02 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Step, ca. 1902/03 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | A Dream Visits Us Every Night, ca. 1902/03 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | Plague, 1902 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | Feast after the Slaughter, um 1900 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Last Nurse, ca 1900/01 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Wien 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Spider, ca. 1901/02 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | Self-Reflection, ca. 1901/02 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Large Head, 1899 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | Sadness, after 1900 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Pursued Man, ca. 1902/03 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Brood, 1903-06 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Prisoner, before 1900 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | War, ca 1918 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | Drowning, 1903 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Alfred Kubin | The Oneberry, 1900 | The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Eberhard Spangenberg, München / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
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THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Alfred Kubin
Editor: Elisabeth Dutz
German / English | 232 pages
EUR 29.90
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