I then went to Munich where I pretended to study architecture just as I had in Dresden
because my parents were against painting. This is how Kirchner describes 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 studying architecture was little more than a necessary compulsion but one that did
not leave much of a mark on the development of his work. Many of his architectural drawings
from his years of study and his diploma thesis have survived to this day. The exhibition aims
to bring this unknown side of the painter into focus and use the designs and sketches to
highlight Kirchner's architectural perspective.
