Who was Alfred Kubin? What were his concerns? Why did he seem overly perturbed? Simple he was an artist to his fingertips. And looking at his drawings (albeit facsimiles) entitled `Dream-Nightmare-Reality` displayed at the Goethe-Institut, Karachi one can`t help but think of another artist — Franz Kafka — though the author of The Trial dabbled in a different genre altogether.

Before studying Kubin two things must be kept in mind (1) he was born in Bohemia and (2) lived in an era (1877-1959) that was plagued by wars, and made him tread the path to/of self-discovery, a result of the incessant psycho-social friction between individual and society. The former makes him a born-Bohemian and the latter a sensitive being.

One doesn`t know what prompted Kubin to draw `Hour of death`, but if one has read Kafka`s Metamorphosis, one can readily draw a parallel here — a human being transforming into a giant vermin, making society look at him from a diametrically opposed perspective. This may not have been Kubin`s idea, but in the timeframe when he was practising his art, bureaucratic tyranny and hegemonic designs were two of the most feared things. And the artist community is always the first one to react to the stratagem of this kind.

Fears often hit us in the shape of nightmares. Sometimes dreams turn into nightmares and impinge on one`s private life. This is exactly what Kubin achieved through oneiric themes in his drawings.

For example, in a work titled `Scream of fear`, the eyes of one of the birds have an air of sadness about them that can only be ascribed to man, making the animal appear like a thorough sentient being.

Alfred Kubin doesn`t obfuscate the issues that agitate him into creating works of art, at the same time he expresses them in a seemingly unreal manner.

In another piece `War` (which is self-axiomatic) he has used phantasmagorical images of half-human half-bird creatures, delineating the horrendousness of war. This is where Kubin accomplishes something startling he doesn`t obfuscate the issues that agitate him into creating works of art, at the same time he expresses them in a seemingly unreal manner.

His work `Horror` may prove this point. It`s a duck-shaped ship tossed up by a storm out of which towers a skeletal, fiendish figure (with one eye bulging out). It`s an ingenious way to underline real fears and their imaginary manifestations.

This shouldn`t mislead us into believing that`s what Kubin is all about. He doesn`t have temporal worries alone, time and space also matter to him, though their reference maybe taken from the transient nature of existence. This is pointed out in the `The last judgment` in which there`s a clock (in the form of a chair, symbolising authority perhaps) and its hands cutting off heads that indicate the diurnal rotation of time. Just stupendous!

It would be interesting to note here, as written in the introductory note to the artist provided by Goethe-Institut, when Alfred Kubin was 19 years old he tried to put his life to an end. He died `secluded` in Zwickledt in 1959.

Artists often experience seclusion, for reasons that are not hard to fathom.

The exhibition will continue till February 20.