Into the Unknown, 1900/01

Masses of people, seemingly solidifying in the distance, are streaming calmly and composedly into a huge portal – unaware that the aperture is really the wide-open mouth of a monstrous beast with enormous canine teeth. Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) segments the picture plane with fine pen strokes and spray technique: The human masses flowing from the foreground to the center of the format – and hence into the jaws of the monster – are depicted in different horizontal illuminations. From the semi-darkness in the foreground, the figures, which are then shown only as hazy masses, are proceeding into a more and more dazzling light, only to disappear through the partly lit mouth into the black hole of the throat. The people in the foreground, depicted individually and in detail, are talking to each other in a relaxed manner. No trace of suspicion or worry can be detected. Kubin’s decision to call the work, created with pen and India ink in 1900/01, Into the Unknown once again reveals his deeply black humor and his desire to lead us into his world of metaphors, ambiguities and dreariness.

MH, 2021