{"id":45000,"date":"2022-04-13T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=45000"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:04:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T13:04:55","slug":"alfred-kubin-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/alfred-kubin-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred Kubin exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubinsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Museum motif\" class=\"wp-image-44998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubinsmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubinsmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The wheel of time turns, and some themes seem doomed to ever reoccur in human history. Alfred Kubin&#8217;s fantastical dreamscapes in the Leopold Museum reflect the anguish of an uncertain world stepping gingerly into and through the early 1900s. Fast forward a century\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Explores Kubin&#8217;s oneiric worlds and dark motifs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Includes works by those who inspired him<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Apr 16 &#8211; Jul 24, 2022<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/leopold-museum\/\">Leopold Museum visitor info<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/\">Current art exhibitions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Confessions of a tortured soul<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubin.jpg\" alt=\"Alfred Kubin, Ins Unbekannte, 1900\/01 \u00a9 Leopold Museum, photo: Leopold Museum, Wien\/ Manfred Thumberger \u00a9 Eberhard Spangenberg, M\u00fcnchen\/ Bildrecht\" class=\"wp-image-44997\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubin.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/kubin-300x216.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Alfred Kubin, &#8220;Ins Unbekannte&#8221; (into the unknown), 1900\/01 \u00a9 Leopold Museum, Wien; photo: Leopold Museum, Wien\/ Manfred Thumberger \u00a9 Eberhard Spangenberg, M\u00fcnchen\/ Bildrecht, Wien 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some exhibitions seem to speak to the times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last couple of years won&#8217;t go down as a period of exuberant joy. And while the pandemic might be easing (but who knows?), other issues ensure we have little respite from unremitting bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of the work of Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) fits the Zeitgeist with its dark quasi-dystopian air, its portrayals of existential threats, and its manifestation on paper of fears real and imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Equally, the fantastical themes and imaginings in his drawings at least offer some kind of escape from the banal. And a lacing of humour, for example, takes the edge off some of the pessimistic depictions (but only some).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born into the Austria-Hungary empire and enduring considerable personal tragedy and trauma of his own, Kubin&#8217;s artistic flowering followed encounters with the work of Max Klinger, Goya, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, the Kubin exhibition at the Leopold Museum presents his works alongside those that might have inspired him (including art by Klimt and Munch, for example).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kubin&#8217;s synthesis of perceived and imagined reality drew on some of the worst moments of human existence, some of which bear unfortunate parallels to today: a pandemic, war and its atrocities, manipulation of the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of his drawings from the early 1900s was even titled <em>The Plague<\/em> and sold for some GBP 579,000 at a 2019 Sotheby&#8217;s auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, other works in the exhibition also deal with the ever-encroaching inevitabilities of life (and death). Or tackle gender relations with some unfortunate representations of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While we can easily reject the misogyny of the times, other works seem to pierce the layers of protection from life&#8217;s harsh realities and open a  window into darker truths we prefer to keep locked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kubin&#8217;s work stands between symbolism and surrealism. An artist at a crossroads, as everything seems to be these days. Truly an exhibition for 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tickets\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Explore Kubin&#8217;s powerful imagination between April 16th and July 24th, 2022. A normal entrance ticket to the Leopold Museum includes the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Incidentally, Vienna&#8217;s Albertina museum has its own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/edvard-munch-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"39545\">Edvard Munch exhibition<\/a> running concurrently for much of the same time for a double dose of anguish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you want to shift gears into surrealism, consider visiting Lower Belvedere with its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/dali-freud-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"39868\">Dal\u00ed &#8211; Freud exhibition<\/a> (until late May).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you miss the exhibition, you can catch up with Kubin in the second part of 2024 at the Albertina Modern&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/drawings-kubin\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"72819\">The Aesthetics of Evil<\/a> exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to Kubin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Just follow the travel tips at the bottom of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/leopold-museum\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"4014\">main Leopold Museum article<\/a> The exhibition takes place on Level -1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Kubin exhibition covers much of the summer. For an antidote to existential angst, pop outside the museum into the wider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sightseeing\/vienna-museums\/mq\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"4030\">MuseumsQuartier complex<\/a> with its open-air bars and restaurants (not to mention the famously brightly-coloured courtyard loungers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1i9IZX6LeUKth_5sm2EOO-SqQl8s\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wheel of time turns, and some themes seem doomed to ever reoccur in human history. Alfred Kubin&#8217;s fantastical dreamscapes in the Leopold Museum reflect the anguish of an uncertain world stepping gingerly into and through the early 1900s. Fast forward a century\u2026 Confessions of a tortured soul (Alfred Kubin, &#8220;Ins Unbekannte&#8221; (into the unknown), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45000"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79244,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45000\/revisions\/79244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}