The Superb Bizarre Vintage Surrealist Illustrations by Alfred Kubin

Alfred Kubin, a Bohemian printmaker and illustrator, was a key Symbolist and Expressionist figure. Supernatural animals and sexual brutality were common in his imaginative black-and-white illustrations.

Kubin, born in Leitmeritz, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) on April 10, 1877, attempted suicide and had a psychological breakdown before 20. After arriving to Munich in 1899, Kubin was introduced to Francisco de Goya and Max Klinger, the latter of whom had a major impact on him. He briefly joined the Der Blaue Reiter, which included Wassily Kandinsky and Marianne Werefkin, and began doing nightmarish ink-and-wash works. Most famously, Kubin illustrated German editions of Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky. His work was considered decadent during the Nazi era, so he stayed at a castle in Zwickledt, Upper Austria, in solitary. In 1950, he received the City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts. He died at home on August 20, 1959.