Living in a Dream: Alfred Kubin’s Inner Landscapes
Rocío Sola
Publication: Volume 4 Issue 3
Abstract | This paper seeks to provide an overview of the importance of dreams in the work of the well-known multidisciplinary Austrian artist, Alfred Kubin, through the prism of an aspect not so often addressed: Landscape. From an explanation of how Kubin understands dreams and the perception of images generated by them, the aim here is to create a parallelism between the spatial-temporal rupture within the dream experience and a similar rupture present in Kubin’s written and drawn landscapes. This rupture, corresponding to Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, emphasizes the importance of perception when signifying spaces, thus, creating a strong sense of multiplicity and liminality. The paper dwells in depth on his 1909 novel, Die andere Seite (The Other Side), where these landscapes are described in detail. The novel is understood as an impasse within Kubin’s work, especially as far as the confection of imaginary spaces is concerned. Thus, concepts such as space, landscape, dream, imagination, memory, and fantasy are gathered under the umbrella of Kubin’s creations—always halfway between literature and drawing—elaborating upon a series of works that develop this theme and extend almost until the end of his life.
Keywords | Alfred Kubin, Space, Landscape, Dream Realm, Oneiric, Stimmung, Imagination, Perception, Inner Self, Inner Imaginary, Limits of Consciousness, Individual Unconsciousness, Foucault, Heterotopia
Rocío Sola (rocio.sola@upf.edu) is a PhD holder at the Department of Humanities, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. Her research deals with the configuration of imaginary spaces in the art and literature of the early Avant-garde in Austria and Germany, with a strong interest in the affections and the construction of identity through the link between human beings and the spaces through which they wander. Her latest collaborations also address this issue from a gender perspective, strongly influenced by feminist methodologies and situated knowledge.