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Alfred Kubin<br />
Der Guckkasten (The Looking Box)<br />
Alfred Kubin’s life (1877-1959) was fraught with crises, a fact reflected by an oeuvre shot through with dark<br />
undertones. He focused almost exclusively on drawing, producing works that oscillate between dream and<br />
nightmare, mingling the real and imaginary at various levels and in various systems, and that can only be<br />
described as fantastic in every respect. Kubin’s monsters, chimaera and daemons reveal the fears and horror<br />
fantasies that beleaguered him.<br />
The sheet entitled Der Guckkasten shows four figures with both human and insect features as well as<br />
strangely twisted extremities.The middle figure in the foreground is looking into a peep box whose contents<br />
remain concealed from the viewer.<br />
Anarchie depicts Kubin himself in the guise of a female figure in black holding a whip above her head.<br />
A crow sits at her feet; a helmet has been placed on the ground to the right behind her. A troop of soldiers<br />
moves across the middle ground. The scene is set in front of buildings of which one has fantastically-shaped<br />
tower structures of uncertain functionality.<br />
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