Alfred Kubin: The Aesthetic of Evil

ALFRED KUBIN (1877–1959) was an important Austrian draughtsman and graphic artist. In 1898, after a traumatic childhood in Zell am See and a series of mental crises, he began his artistic training in Munich. Kubin worked through his nightmares and obsessions in a large number of fantastic drawings.

The ALBERTINA modern exhibition presents Alfred Kubin’s view of the world of evil, the predominant theme of his life and work. The aesthetics of evil prove to be the antithesis of a tranquil idyll for him, one of the most outstanding drawing artists of the twentieth century. Trapped in his fantasies, he finds himself confronted with uncanny dream apparitions and a pronounced fear of the feminine, the night, and fate. This catalog explores Kubin’s graphic cosmos of the ominous, his nightmares and obsessions, and the iconography of evil.

This exhibition draws on the ALBERTINA Museum’s extensive holdings of around 1,800 drawings by the artist.