Man, c. 1902

As if on the tracks of a roller coaster, whose course seems to draw our eyes in elegant curves and sways into a depth of blinding light, an anthropomorphic little figure mounted on a double wheel is racing downwards from a dizzying height at breath-taking speed. In the following moments it will need to master a dangerous curve in the tracks and will subsequently disappear from our sight, vanishing in the glaring background. In Man, an early work dating from 1902, Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) already employs pen, India ink and spray technique to create a composition that recalls the imagery of a dream and seems to express deep insight into the human subconscious. Its arms pressed tightly to its athletic body, its torso leaning slightly forward in a tense posture, the little creature with its humble and serious face appears to be fully focused on trying to compensate the wild, bendy course of the tracks with its unexpected changes of direction and seems to concentrate exclusively on keeping its balance. The long strands of hair flying backwards illustrate the breakneck speed of its descent. The volute of the curving tracks loses itself in the dazzling void of the light streaming out of the center of the imaginary space – like a metaphor for the uncertain, the unknown, fate, life and its end: the future. Kubin’s hand-written pencil note on the lower right margin of the work is therefore quite telling: “The racing descent of man’s life from birth to death, milestone 26 on the route.”

MH, 2021