Alfred Kubin: the aesthetics of evil

Uittreksel

"For Austrian artist Alfred Kubin (1877-1959), evil was intrinsic to his life and work. After a traumatic childhood growing up in Zell am See and subsequent mental crises, he began his artistic training in Munich in 1898. He processed his nightmares and obsessions in a large number of fantastical drawings. His subjects, perpetually pessimistic, remain relevant a century later: war, famine, pestilence, death and every horror in between. Kubin had a pronounced fear of the feminine, sexuality, night time and of being at the mercy of fate, all of which visited him in uncanny dreams. For Kubin, the aesthetic of evil proved to be the antithesis of the idyll: the deliberate suppression of a hideous reality. Drawn from the Albertina Museum's collection of over 1,800 drawings by the artist, The Aesthetic of Evil displays Kubin's grotesque vision as well as his superb draftsmanship. Amid the violent, haunting atmosphere of his graphic works it is easy to see how Kubin became trapped in his dark visions, to the point where the inexhaustible, intangible specter of evil consumed his life. Essays by Elisabeth Dutz, Natalie Lettner and Brigitte Holzinger explore Kubin's cosmos of the sinister: his personal iconography of evil fueled by his nightmares and obsessions" -- Artbook D.A.P.

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Foreword and acknowledgments / Klaus Albrecht Schröder -- Alfred Kubin : the aesthetics of evil / Elisabeth Dutz -- From monster women to toxic masculinity : Alfred Kubin's iconography of evil / Natalie Lettner -- Of dreams and nightmares : a gate to "the other side" in the work of Alfred Kubin?" / Brigitte Holzinger -- Condemned to death from birth -- Woman and sexuality -- Alienation from nature and origin -- Nightmares of darkness -- Beast of horror -- Grotesques and monstrosities -- The torments of torture -- Ruin and decline -- Death and devil.