Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Vor der Kunst die Architektur
In June 1905 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and his fellow students Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmitt-Rottluff founded the artist group Die Brücke (The Bridge). In the following years Kirchner advanced to one of the most important representatives of expressionism and he is regarded as a pioneer of Classical Modernism.
His work as an architect, on the other hand, is hardly known. Kirchner studied architecture for four years. Die Brücke was founded shortly after he graduated as an architect in July 1905. 95 original architectural drawings by Kirchner have survived until today. They bear witness to the various movements of the time and illustrate architecture in the way Kirchner understood it to be, namely a total work of art – completely in the spirit of contemporary architecture at the beginning of the 20th century.
On large fold-out pages the observer can lose themselves in the fine details of the drawings. The @typeentity:46199@ typeface of the title used is inspired by Art Nouveau posters common in Kirchner’s era. With the wonderful OpenType features it brings liveliness and colour to the pages of the scientific texts, which are set in low-key Metric.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Vor der Kunst die Architektur is the catalog to the exhibition of the same title, shown at Baukunstarchiv NRW. The book is available from Verlag Kettler.
