Der Wüstentod [Desert death] (La morte nel deserto)

This striking and richly coloured work depicts one of Kubin's favourite themes - the figure of Death - riding a camel and carrying a huge scythe-like banner. The image of Death on a camel almost certainly derives from an ancient Arab superstition which declares that he who dreams of the image of a man on a camel in the desert is fated to die shortly afterwards. For Kubin, a self-declared "fatalist," this story evidently struck a chord. In addition to his many varied depictions of the figure of Death in the more familiar Western European tradition of carrying a scythe and riding either a horse or a fiersome creature from the depths of hell, there are several examples in his oeuvre where Death is rendered riding a camel.

Entitled Der Wüstentod ("Desert-Death") this particular version is one of the most fully-worked and atmospheric of these drawings and is clearly intended as a pictorial manifestation of this ancient superstition. Emerging from the dark horizon waving an elaborately decorated banner that sweeps across the night-time sky in the shape of a scythe, this figure of Death appears wearing a green turban and sitting astride a haggard-looking creature while staring straight at the viewer. With its bleak landscape and long sinister shadows all exquisitely rendered in rich brown colours and sharp ink line, this magnificent product of Kubin's ever-fertile creative imagination, encapsulates in a single and seemingly archetypal image, the haunting resonance of a nightmare.

This piece sold for $47,541 at Christie's London in 2000.

Found here: [link]

Mann im Sturm [Man in a storm] (Uomo nella tempesta)

"Kubin's artistic output explored basic human impulses—desire, fear, death, destruction, and also fantasy. His enigmatic drawings belie an unusual sense of humor and a taste for perversion. Kubin's work from around 1903 entitled Man in a Storm evokes a nightmare. A huge, bee-like insect with a giant stinger swoops down on a nude, male figure, whose own shadow is transformed into a ghostly doppelgänger. The man strides toward a luminous source of light. His long hair streams behind him, yet his feet appear rooted to the ground. The diagonal thrust of the composition increases the sense of urgency and directs attention toward a possible passage of escape. As a child, Kubin suffered a series of traumas, including the premature death of his mother and the loss of his first fiancée, Emmy Bayer. This work is believed to have been completed around the time that Emmy Bayer was sick and dying of typhus."

Review written by Janis Staggs, for "Curator’s Choice" in Neue Galerie New York
Follow her on Twitter @Curator_NGNY.