Sale: 539 / Modern Art Day Sale, June 10. 2023 in Munich Lot 309

 

309
Alfred Kubin
Die Selbstmörderin, Um 1912.
Watercolor and ink pen
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 38,100 / $ 41,148

(incl. surcharge)
Die Selbstmörderin. Um 1912.
Watercolor and ink pen.
Lower right signed and lower left titled. Lower right corner inscribed "38/1920". On field book paper. 21.5 x 26.8 cm (8.4 x 10.5 in). Sheet: 31,5 x 39 cm (12,4 x 15,3 in).
A lithograph with the same motif for Kubin's portfolio "Traumland (Meine Traumwelt)", 2 portfolios with 13 sheets each, was made on basis of this drawing in 1920. Other motifs in the portfolio are based on significant drawings from the years around 1910/15 (cf. Annegret Hoberg, Alfred Kubin. Das lithographische Werk, Munich 1999, pp. 274-289). [JS].

• Wonderfully composed sheet, a prime example of Kubin's graphic gift.
• One of Kubin's most significant drawings from the 1910s, in 1920 the artist chose it for his portfolio of lithographs "Traumland".
• From teh acclaimed Serge Sabarsky Collection, New York.
• Kubin's two key themes life and death unite in the famous motif of the pregnant suicide in a dramatic manner.
• Drawings of a comparable quality are at important international collections like the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Leopold Museum, Vienna, the Albertina Vienna and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
.

We are grateful to Dr. Annegret Hoberg, formerly Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Kubin-Archive, for her kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Welz, Salzburg (until 1971).
Serge Sabarsky Collection (1912-1996), New York (acqquired from the above in 1971).
Serge Sabarsky Estate, New York.
Vally Sabarsky Collection (1909-2002), New York.
Vally Sabarsky Stiftung, New York.

EXHIBITION: Alfred Kubin. 1877-1959. An exhibition of drawings and watercolors, Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, Dec. 1970 - Jan. 1971, no. 16.
Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Alfred Kubin, Galerie St. Etienne, New York, March 27 - June 2, 1990.
Symbolism and the Austrian Avant Garde, Galerie St. Etienne, New York, November 16, 1992 - January 8, 1993.

LITERATURE: Otto Breicha, Alfred Kubin 1877-1959, Bilder und Schriften zu Leben und Werk, erschienen anlässlich der Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag in Österreich, Salzburg 1977, p. 74, black-and-white illu. 59.
Otto Breicha, Alfred Kubin.Weltgeflecht. Ein Kubin Kompendium. Schriften und Bilder zu Leben und Werk, Salzburg 1978, p. 74, black-and-white illu 59.
Cf. Alfred Kubin. Bekenntnisse einer gequälten Seele, ex. cat. Leopold Museum Vienna, April 16 - July 24, 2022, illu. p. 186 (lithograph from the portfolio "Traumland").

Especially in his early creative period, Kubin was an obsessed draftsman of unique, deeply symbolic dream worlds. In his masterfully composed drawings, he often created menacing nightmare scenarios or sexual fantasies in which we encounter fantastic creatures, symbioses of humans and animals in surreal landscapes. Life and death are his key themes, which Kubin unfolds in his gloomy dream worlds. Kubin's captivating graphic oeuvre is consistently figurative, but by no means realistic. It is - as in the present sheet "Die Selbstmörderin" (The Suicidal Woman) with rich details - always entirely the product of many sources from literature in combination with an almost exuberant artistic imagination. The body of the naked, pregnant woman who committed suicide out of despair and fear of the illegitimate birth, has put an early end to her own and the unborn life, floats in the water, white as a sheet. The topic of infanticide and suicide due to unwanted pregnancy has been a popular literary topic since the days of Sturm und Drange, which Kubin artistically implemented in his "Selbstmörderin" in a fascinating way. Kubin's works have a close connection between the themes of life and death, which shaped his oeuvre. These were of central importance to him, which is also proven by the later inclusion of the motif as a lithograph in his "Traumland" portfolio. In a letter dated June 14, 1911, Wassily Kandinsky, among others, described the unstable mental state as fundamental to Kubin's unique symbolistic-visionary creative power: "Dear Kubin! [..] Please try hard to chase the dark thoughts away, to bring them down. After all, you are a person of fine feelings, fine sensitivity. [..] I am very grateful to you in advance for the copy of the night pieces. You know how much I love your things. [..] - Your Kandinsky." (quoted from: Paul Raabe (compiled on behalf of Dr. Kurt Otte, Kubin Archive Hamburg), Alfred Kubin. Leben - Werk - Wirkung, Hamburg 1957, pp. 36/37). [JS]



309
Alfred Kubin
Die Selbstmörderin, Um 1912.
Watercolor and ink pen
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 38,100 / $ 41,148

(incl. surcharge)