Kirchner studied architectural engineering in Dresden and with other artists helped form "Die Brucke" (The Bridge), an association which espoused avant-garde ideas. The young artists were among the first to be impressed with the directness of African and Oceanic art, and they attempted to incorporate this factor into their paintings and prints. Kirchner's scenes of Berlin, where he moved in 1911, are filled with the nervous energy of the city. After serving in the army for a few months during World War I, Kirchner suffered a nervous breakdown and spent much of the next decade in and out of hospitals and sanitoriums in Germany and in Switzerland where he settled soon after the war ended. His paintings became more decorative with flatter colors. The last few years of his life were plagued with illness and with depression. The Nazi government officially declared his art "degenerate" and by 1937 nearly 650 of his works were confiscated from public collections by the government; some were dstroyed, others were sold outside Germany. In the summer of the following year Kirchner committed suicide.

Source: November-December 1976.