Barszene

1898

Nuremberg and Dürer: the decision to become a painter

On a school trip to Nuremberg in 1898 the young Kirchner saw the printing blocks of early woodcuts and incunabula at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and, inspired by the art of Albrecht Dürer, decided to become a painter; he later wrote that this experience shaped his aim of renewing German art.

1905

An architect’s diploma and then only painting

In 1905 Kirchner returned to Dresden, sat the final diploma examination, received his architecture degree and then turned exclusively to painting.

7 June 1905

Founding of the Brücke group

Four architecture students of the Dresden Technical College — Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff — founded the group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”); 7 June is considered its founding day. Heckel proposed the name and Kirchner became the group’s ideologist: he made the rejection of the materialist worldview, realism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau the basis of its aesthetic.

1913

The “Brücke Chronicle” and the break-up of the group

In 1913 Kirchner wrote the “Chronicle of the Brücke group,” in which, his comrades felt, he overstated his own role in its creation; a quarrel followed, Kirchner left the Brücke and the group fell apart.

1937

“Degenerate art”: 639 works removed

In 1937 the Nazis classed Kirchner as a “degenerate” artist: 639 of his works were removed from German museums, some of them destroyed, and 25 paintings were shown at the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, which Hitler personally declared an “insult to the nation.”

15 June 1938

Died