Alfred Kubin – Rhythm and Construction

Alfréd Kubin (1877-1959) was a painter, graphic artist, writer and creator of an original art style combining the ideas of symbolism and the morphology of expressionism. The book Rhythm and Construction was published in conjunction with the exhibition by the same name, organized by the Egon Schiele Art Centre in Český Krumlov. It is the first monograph on Kubin’s work in the Czech language. After graduating from the Munich Academy, Kubin started to collaborate with members of the Vienna and Berlin art noveau movements. He met and befriended the painters Paul Klee and Max Klinger and the writers Thomas Mann, Gustav Meyrink and Franz Kafka. His first exhibition in Bohemia took place in 1905. The emphasis in the book is not only on the illustrations - the individual essays deal not only with Kubin’s work in the perspective of art history, but also with the Litoměřice native’s relationship to his homeland and also with his seminal literary work. Of great value is the anthology of his texts. The book contains a list of exhibitions and a comprehensive bibliography.