Architect Drawings : A Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects Through History

Finsterlin, Hermann (1887–1973)
Sketchbook page, c. 1920, Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk, KH 11a, 31.9 25.8cm,
Pencil and color pencil on transparent paper
An artist and fantasy architect of German expressionism, Hermann Finsterlin was born in Munich.
After first studying the natural sciences and philosophy at Munich University, he redirected his studies
to painting (Pehnt, 1973). In 1919, the architects of the Arbeitsrat group sponsored a competition
inviting artists to show ‘ideal projects’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 91). Entering the ‘Exhibition for Unknown
Architects,’ Finsterlin thus began his association with these expressionist architects. (Pehnt, 1973).
This group of like-minded artists and architects, feeling somewhat isolated in their views, formed a
community of correspondents called Die Gläserne Kette (The Glass Chain) which included Finsterlin,
Bruno and Max Taut, Walter Gropius, Hans Hansen, and Hans Scharoun. In the early 1920s,
Finsterlin attempted to build, but those projects were never realized and he dedicated himself to painting
after 1924. This ‘paper architecture’ did not require a client or even a structure; rather, it encouraged
fantasy and imagination and provided efficient dissemination of his beliefs. Always a theorist and
idealist, Finsterlin was interested in theosophy and continued to study the ‘biological creative urge in
art which made use of the human medium’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 96).
Hermann Finsterlin speculated on the architecture of the future. Like Mendelsohn, his life-long
friend, he was attracted to the abstraction of natural forms. His buildings often appear misshapen, conceived
in a flowing elastic material that questions the tenets of architecture. Wolfgang Pehnt describes
his paintings as ‘exciting form-landscape in which interior and exterior are drawn together into continuous
planes and spatial entities’ (Pehnt, 1973, p. 97).
This page by Finsterlin (Figure 6.9) reveals a creative process searching for form. It appears that he
sketched continuously, making a series of looped, abstract figures. Because of his use of translucent
paper, many of the images have been framed and numbered from both sides. The squiggles are reminiscent
of ‘automatic writing’ – seemingly made quickly, showing smooth lines in a frenzy of activity.
With this deliberate technique, he chose to make curls rather than straight lines, providing him with
results that anticipated the architecture he was envisioning. It appears he was attempting to instigate as
much as possible accidentally into the process.
Consistent with expressionist ideology, sketches were generally valued for revealing creative inspiration
(Pehnt, 1985). Edward Casey describes this as ‘pure possibility,’ a term used to explain a function
of the imagination (Casey, 1976). Pure possibility suggests that all things are possible and at this
early stage, for Finsterlin, no image was ruled out. Finsterlin put down what forms appeared in his
head without judgment, and thus everything contained potential. Using the cognitive and visual
techniques of resemblance and association, these images were so ambiguous that he could read anything
into their vague form.
Once these sketches appeared on the paper, Finsterlin could, in a system of evaluation, highlight
the forms he felt held the most promise. He framed several of these chosen sketches and, in pencil,
began architectural articulation on others. The philosopher Richard Wollheim concerning translating
abstract forms writes, ‘Now my suggestion is that in so far as we see a drawing as a representation,
instead of as a configuration of lines and strokes, the incongruity between what we draw and what we
see disappears’ (Wollheim, 1973, p. 22). These uncontrolled scribbles provided Finsterlin with images
of ‘pure possibility,’ but the process required an evaluation phase to enable him to envision the
sketches as future architecture.
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