Kubin, Alfred (1877-1959), Lao-Tse, 1923

Alfred Kubin(1877 Leitmeritz - 1959 Zwickledt), Lao-Tse, 1923. Pen and ink lithograph on laid paper, 25 cm x 14 cm (image), 44.8 cm x 21.8 cm (sheet size), signed “A[lfred] Kubin” in the stone lower right and inscribed “Lao-Tse” in the center.

- Paper darkened and dusty, distinct creases, corners with thumbtack holes

- Untouchable -

The Chinese philosopher and founder of Daoism Lao-Tse seems to grow out of a crack in the earth and towers with his headgear over the rocks and into the sky. Beside him on the ground, vicious-looking creatures crawl and flit, besieging the philosopher and trying to disturb his inner peace. Even the nature above the creatures and the cloud formations seem uncanny, and yet the philosopher rests statuesque within himself, his face itself looking like a landscape.

Alfred Kubin translates a philosophy close to his own thinking into his characteristically uncanny and enigmatic imagery.

About the artist

After training as a photographer in Klagenfurt, Alfred Kubin moved to Munich in 1898. There he first attended the painting school of Ludwig Schmid-Reutte and from 1899 the Munich Art Academy. After abandoning his studies and traveling extensively, Kubin spent the rest of his life in 1906 at Schloss Zwickledt near Wernstein am Inn. There he wrote his novel "The Other Side", which he illustrated himself and published in 1909. In the same year, together with Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Gabriele Münter, Marianne von Werefkin and Karl Hofer, he founded the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' (N.K.V.M.), from which the 'Blaue Reiter' emerged in 1911. Kubin was represented with numerous graphic works at the second exhibition of the 'Blauer Reiter' in 1912.

In addition to his graphic portfolio works "Ein Totentanz" (1918), "Am Rande des Lebens" (1921), "Abenteuer einer Zeichenfeder" (1941) and "Die Planeten" (1943), he illustrated some 60 books, including works by Dostoevsky, Oskar Panizza, Edgar Allan Poe and Elias Canetti. He also produced thousands of pen-and-ink drawings and designed stage sets.

Kubin was a member of the Prague Secession, the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1930, and the Bavarian Academy of the Arts in 1949.