“Der Teufel als Hengst” (The devil as a stallion)

Details

Inscribed by an unknown hand on the reverse.
We are thankful to Dr. Annegret Hoberg, former Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Kubin-Archiv, for the information she has kindly provided for cataloguing this lot.

Literature:

Breicha, Otto, Alfred Kubin, 1877-1959, Bilder und Schriften zu Leben und Werk, published for the exhibitions on the 100th anniversary of his birth in Austria, Salzburg

Description

– Created in the early and particularly charming phase of Kubin’s finding his style
– Detailed and colourful ink work
– Atmospheric illustration of the artist’s world of thought

Kubin’s work repeatedly takes us into worlds of lustful nightmares, of looking beyond beauty. In 1909, he published “The Other Side”, a novel with pictures and text by him, in the course of which the protagonist falls deeper and deeper into a maelstrom that is as fascinating as it is nightmarish. In his novel, Kubin uses a term that seems to characterise his overall oeuvre: “psychographics”. In the course of the novel, he has his protagonist explain that he is referring to a style of drawing that is able to depict his emotions and thoughts in detail.

But how should we then understand the presentation offered here?

“The Devil as a Stallion” depicts a nightmarish scene: Initially an innocent scene of a horse in front of a vast landscape, the colour mood and not least the title create a different picture. Here, the devil has taken the form of a virile stallion. He stands proudly in front of a volcanic landscape full of fire and scorched earth and looks into the distance, as if he wants to survey his realm. But is Kubin warning of the allure of evil here – or is the image enticing?