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Danger, c. 1901

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
India ink, pen, watercolor, spray technique on cadastral paper
29.3×32.6 cm

Artists

  • Alfred Kubin

    (Litoměřice 1877–1959 Zwickledt)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) makes us experience utter hopelessness and absolute horror as he gives free reign to his overflowing imagination and lures us into an emotional abyss in his 1901 India ink and watercolor drawing Danger. Kubin exposes us to an overpowering, elemental threat that resembles a paralyzing nightmare, a vision of horror: In a basin-like sea enclosed by high, smooth walls that appear insuperable, a tiny human figure is trying to escape on a boat with billowed sails. The masts of sunken ships protrude from the water. A gigantic monster is bending down over the edge of the basin and is stirring the sea with its huge, brutal paws attached to infinitely long arms. It is trying to catch the speeding boat. The horrible beast is a chimera with a human torso and the snake-like neck of a brontosaurus topped by a small, hideous, almost human face with a grimace that seems to crave its next victim. As a superb explorer of nightmarish worlds, Kubin already seems to anticipate Surrealism in his early works.

MH, 2021

Object data

Artist/author
  • Alfred Kubin
Title
Danger
Date
c. 1901
Art movement
Symbolism
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
India ink, pen, watercolor, spray technique on cadastral paper
Dimensions
29.3×32.6 cm
Signature
Signed lower right using pencil: AKubin; designated lower center using India ink: Gefahr
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 915
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Alfred Kubin. Bekenntnisse einer gequälten Seele, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Köln 2022 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 16.04.2022–24.07.2022).
  • Alfred Kubin. Aus meinem Reich. Meisterblätter aus dem Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Rudolf Leopold/Romana Schuler, Wien 2002 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 05.10.2002-06.01.2003).
Keywords
allegorymonsters with abnormal sizesbarrageshipping accident/sickness/death at seasailing-shipcloudstraffic on the water

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Heinrich Stinnes, Köln (o.D.); (1)
Auktion: November 1973, Ketterer München, Auktion Nr. 10, Los Nr. 768, Abb. S. 113;
Franz Armin Morat, Freiburg im Breisgau (1973-1979); (1)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1979-1994); (2)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Hans Albert Peters (Hrsg.), Alfred Kubin. Das zeichnerische Frühwerk bis 1904, Stuttgart 1977, S. 218, Nr. 59 (Abb. S. 219)
  2. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Liste der LMPS von Werken Kubins mit der Provenienz Franz Armin Morat; Mündliche Auskunft Franz Armin Morat an Dr. Alfred Fehringer (LMPS) vom 22.05.2017

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Search in collection

allegorymonsters with abnormal sizesbarrageshipping accident/sickness/death at seasailing-shipcloudstraffic on the water