Alfred Kubin, Man

c. 1902

Without the ability to change direction or escape the end of the track looming in the distance, a helpless man on a rollercoaster rushes to meet his merciless fate. His hands tied behind his back, his expression is rigid and apathetic. Kubin’s reflection on the general fate of humanity is brought to illustration on this paper. In 1904, he wrote in a letter to his sister: “Death, nothingness, is the fate of the world, [and all] those individual forces which together constitute the world. Each [of us] expire unconditionally [along] a predestined route – like a machine.”

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