{"id":69547,"date":"2014-04-10T19:30:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T23:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=69547"},"modified":"2014-04-11T08:26:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T12:26:06","slug":"in-extremis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/in-extremis\/","title":{"rendered":"In Extremis"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\/* <![CDATA[ *\/ portfolio_slideshow.slideshows[866] = {\"timeout\":\"4000\",\"autoplay\":\"false\",\"trans\":\"fade\",\"loop\":\"true\",\"speed\":\"400\",\"nowrap\":\"true\"}; \/* ]]> *\/<\/script><div id=\"slideshow-wrapper866\" class=\"slideshow-wrapper clearfix portfolio-slideshow-centered\">\n<div id=\"slideshow-nav866\" class=\"slideshow-nav\">\n\t<a class=\"pause\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Pause<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"play\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"restart\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"slideshow-prev\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Prev<\/a>\n\t<span class=\"sep\">|<\/span>\n\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Next<\/a>\n\t<span class=\"slideshow-info866 slideshow-info\"><\/span>\n<\/div><!-- .slideshow-nav -->\n<div id=\"portfolio-slideshow866\" class=\"portfolio-slideshow\" style=\"\">\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content \">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alfred_Kubin_-_Self-Reflection_c._1901-1902_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alfred_Kubin_-_Self-Reflection_c._1901-1902_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" height=\"483\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 1\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alfred-Kubin-Danger.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"534\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 2\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alfred-Kubin-into-the-unknown-c-1901-2.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"452\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 3\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/alfred-kumin-epidemic-1901.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"598\" alt=\"Slide 4\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alfred_Kubin_-_Dolmen_c._1900-1902_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"483\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 5\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Alred-Kubin-black-mass-1905.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"392\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 6\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/kubin-siberian-fairy-tale.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"429\" alt=\"Slide 7\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Kubin-the-moment-of-birth.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"465\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 8\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"slideshow-meta\">\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div><\/div><!--#slideshow-wrapper-->\n<p>Alfred Kubin was an Austrian artist and, to hazard a guess, a fairly tortured soul. Today is his birthday, and as a peg it\u2019ll have to suffice, though I don\u2019t imagine he was the type to put on a party hat. He was known to live in a small castle in Zwickledt, and his biography includes a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt\u2014the latter on his mother\u2019s grave. His early drawings, shown here, often feature monsters, deformities, disfigurements, human bodies in decay\u2014a grim phantasmagoria of the bleak, the macabre, and the merely unsettling, with a palette that tends toward soot. What keeps me looking at it is some element of detachment in his style, as if a savage disembowelment by a fantastical creature were no big thing; we\u2019re not accustomed to seeing the brutal without the lurid. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moma.org\/collection\/artist.php?artist_id=3276\" target=\"_blank\">Christopher Brockhaus notes<\/a>, \u201cthese drawings revealed Kubin\u2019s abiding interest in the macabre. Thematically they were related to Symbolism, as shown by the ink drawing <i>The Spider<\/i> (<abbr title=\"circa\">c.<\/abbr> 1900\u201301; Vienna, Albertina), which depicts a grotesque woman-spider at the center of a web in which copulating couples are ensnared. This reflects the common Symbolist notion of the woman as temptress and destroyer.\u201d Not surprisingly, Kubin admired Schopenhauer. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The artist was a novelist, too, and one book in particular, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1873982690\/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=1873982690&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=theparrev0f-20\" target=\"_blank\"><i>The Other Side<\/i><\/a>, continues to haunt readers today. In an excellent appraisal of Kubin, Jeff VanderMeer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omnivoracious.com\/2009\/06\/alfred-kubin-and-the-tortured-triumph-of-the-other-side.html\" target=\"_blank\">offers a chilling synopsis<\/a> of the novel, which he describes as <em>Apocalypse Now <\/em>by way of Hieronymus Bosch:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>The Other Side<\/em> tells\u00a0the tale of\u00a0a Munich draftsman asked by an old schoolmate named Patera to visit the newly established Dream Kingdom, somewhere in Central Asia. Patera rules the Dream Kingdom from the capital city of Pearl. The wealthy Patera has literally had a European city uprooted and brought to its new location, along with sixty-five thousand inhabitants. The narrator, after some hesitation, agrees to visit and travels with his wife through Constantinople through Batum, Batu, Krasnovodsk, and Samarkand\u2014Samarkand being the last of any identifying landmarks on their journey.<\/p>\n<p>The narrator soon finds that the Dream Kingdom is, well, a kingdom of dreams. People experience or live \u201conly in moods\u201d and shape all outer being at will \u201cthrough the maximum possible cooperative effort.\u201d A huge wall keeps out the world and \u201cthe sun never shone, never were the moon or the stars visible at night \u2026 Here, illusions simply were reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over time, strange rituals and aberrations have sprung up. Pearl also <em>shifts<\/em> in odd ways, and in this sense has a kinship with M. John Harrison\u2019s far-future Viriconium, which also function from more of a metaphorical than a chronological foundation. This doesn\u2019t bother the narrator at first, but as the city\u2019s changes become more and more grotesque, it\u2019s clear that the Dream Kingdom is faltering, descending into madness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alfred Kubin was an Austrian artist and, to hazard a guess, a fairly tortured soul. Today is his birthday, and as a peg it\u2019ll have to suffice, though I don\u2019t imagine he was the type to put on a party hat. He was known to live in a small castle in Zwickledt, and his biography [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[13502,9241,13504,12976,13503,71,9480,13505,13506],"class_list":["post-69547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-alfred-kubin","tag-artists","tag-austria","tag-drawings","tag-expressionism","tag-fiction","tag-symbolism","tag-the-macabre","tag-the-other-side"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Haunting Illustrations of Alfred Kubin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 10, 2014 \u2013 Alfred Kubin was an Austrian artist and, to hazard a guess, a fairly tortured soul. Today is his birthday, and as a peg it\u2019ll have to suffice, though I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/in-extremis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Extremis by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 10, 2014 \u2013 Alfred Kubin was an Austrian artist and, to hazard a guess, a fairly tortured soul. 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