I pretended to study Architecture
"Then went to Munich, where I pretended to study architecture, as in Dresden, because my parents were against painting." This is how Kirchner described his professional training in a letter to Botho Graef in 1916. A short sentence in an otherwise extensive description of his career and the influences that made him an avant-garde painter.
For Kirchner, it seems, the study of architecture was little more than a necessary imposition, that left no great mark on his development. Many of his architectural drawings from the years of his studies and his diploma thesis have survived to this day. The exhibition aims to bring this unknown side of the painter into focus and highlight Kirchner's architectural vision using his designs and sketches. To this end, we are showing selected paintings that reveal the extent to which architectural knowledge accompanied him in his compositions throughout his life.