In October 1911 Kirchner dissolved his studio in Dresden and moved to Berlin. In Wilmersdorf Kirchner found two apartments on Durlacher Strasse 14. On the third floor he set up his studio, while the MUIM Institute, which he had founded together with Max Pechstein, found its premises on the second floor. The institute, a kind of private art school, opened before the end of December. In the brochure (p. 82) printed the same time as the poster, Kirchner explains: "MUIM-Institut/directors M. Pechstein and E. L. Kirchner/Modern instruction in painting, graphics, sculpture, carpet-, glass-, metal- work/Painting in connection with architecture/Instruction with new means and in a new way. Sketching from life combined with composition. Lessons in the institute or studio. Institute available during the day. In the summer plein-air nudes at the sea. Encouraging correction from the individual's own nature." Despite the brochure, the poster, and an advertisement Kirchner also cut in wood and which appeared regularly from December 1911 to September 1912 in the magazine "Der Sturm," edited by Herward Walden, there was no success. The institute was closed towards the end of 1912 for lack of success, the separation from Pechstein may also have contributed to this. Of the few students the institute had, only the Karlsruhe-born Werner Gothein and the Hanoverian Hans Gewecke are known today. Kirchner maintained personal contact with both of them (fig.); they appear in several his works of 1912 and 1913. The subject of the present poster clearly shows the influence of the Buddhist murals of the 6th-century cave temples of Ajanta in India, such as the plumply rounded body shapes and the pronounced, long, softly curved noses and eyes. Kirchner discovered these paintings as late as in spring 1911 in reference books in the Central Art Library of the Dresden museums, where he systematically studied works of non-European art, copying details in large drawings. In the diary of the Swiss years, he was still captivated by their elegance and strangeness of expression. "These works made me almost helpless with delight. I never believed I could achieve this unheard-of uniqueness of representation with monumental calmness of form; all my attempts seemed hollow and restless. I drew much from the pictures only to gain a style of my own.." (E. L. Kirchner, quoted in: Eberhard Kornfeld, Die Arbeit E. L. Kirchners, 1979, p. 333). With the painting "Fünf Badende am See" (Five Bathers on the Lake) Kirchner probably realized his studies for the first time and created a new conception of the female figure. (Fig.) The nude on the MUIM poster with the round forms of a plump semi-nude shows an immediate stylistic proximity to the painting. With a first printing block, Kirchner printed comb-like arcs in ocher, which play around the actual motif, the hard contours kept in black, like a soft shadow and give the poster an exotic lightness despite the great weight of the text. Last but not least, it is a flower that the imaginary model, smelling it with pleasure, seems to hold between thumb and forefinger, as well as the small vignette on the side as a hair brooch with a moving nude, that support the alluring impression of the poster. [MvL]