Kubel started his artistic career as an illustrator. Especially his fairy tale illustrations, some made for books, others for posters or postcards, often being used in several different media (he was very skillful in charcoal too), made him successful. He illustrated several textbooks as well. His best creative years in this area were between 1910 and 1930. Numerous schools used his illustrations for murals. An important part of his success was definitely his approach - he illustrated for children, not for the approval of critics or his colleagues.
Kubel started his artistic career as an illustrator. Especially his fairy tale illustrations, some made for books, others for posters or postcards, often being used in several different media (he was very skillful in charcoal too), made him successful. He illustrated several textbooks as well. His best creative years in this area were between 1910 and 1930.
Numerous schools used his illustrations for murals. An important part of his success was definitely his approach - he illustrated for children, not for the approval of critics or his colleagues.
He also became a painter, with a preference for landscapes (many of them enlivened by the inclusion of children) but occasionally making a portrait or two if a commission came.
After all, he was a married man (to the love of his youth Laura) with three daughters, and additional earning was never frowned upon.
Otto Kubel was very active in his community, no matter where he lived. While studying in Munich he became a member of Munich Artists' Cooperative, then joined the Reich Association of Fine Artists in Germany and also the South German Association of Illustrators in Munich. He was among the founders of Bruker Maler artist colony in Amperstadt.
When he lived in Fürstenfeldbruck (about two decades), where he had a house with a studio, Otto Kubel served as a deputy lay judge at the district court and sang in a men's choir (he portrayed a few other members of the choir, too).
He was a Nazi sympathizer and member of NSDAP since May 1933 which throws a dark shadow on his legacy. In Furstenfeldbruck a street was named after him but later voted to be renamed. The city council eventually decided that his role in the Third Reich was not so important and Otto-Kubel-Strasse is still there while Stadtmuseum in Furstenfeldbruck from time to time still exhibits some of his numerous works.
Despite his political views, his art is exceptional, with lively colorful illustrations of children's stories and fairy tales and landscape paintings executed with superb brushwork. He spent the last years of the Second World War in Partenkirchen and then moved to Munich, where he died at 82 years of age. His gravestone is in St. Magdalena cemetery, where an area for artists is reserved.
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