Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin

Born. 10.04.1877 in Leitmeritz/Tschechien
Died. 20.08.1959 in Wernstein am Inn, Österreich

Austrian graphic artist, writer and book illustrator

About the artist

Kubin was born on 10 April 1877 in Bohemia in the town of Leitmeritz, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He started his career from 1892 to 1896, as a landscape photographer’s apprentice for Alois Beer, but didn’t learn a lot.

1896 to 1897, were bad years for Kubin, he made a suicide attempt on his mother’s grave, and after joining the Austrian army, the following year, he left early with a nervous breakdown.

In 1898, Kubin began his artistic studies at Ludwig Schmitt-Reutte‘s private art academy. One year later, he enrolled at the Munich Academy but left early without finishing the course.

In Munich, Kubin discovered the works of other famous artists. He was particularly inspired by Max Klinger’s prints and swore that he would dedicate his life to the creation of similar works.

Klinger’s technique influenced the style of Kubin‘s works, as he drew fantastical, and often macabre subjects ink and wash. In 1911, he was a part of the Blaue Reiter group, one of the most important artist groups of Classical Modernism. Founded by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin. Kubin exhibited with them in the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin in 1913

Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism and is noted for dark, spectral, symbolic fantasies, often assembled into a thematic series of drawings. Kubin also had literary talent. He illustrated the works of Edgar Allan Poe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others.

From 1906, he withdrew from society and lived in Zwickledt, upper Austria until his death on August 20, 1959.