After his academic training in Dresden, where Fritz Kühn came into contact with open-air painting, he met the artist group "Scholle" in Munich. 1906 in Paris Kühn processes influences of Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and especially the Fauves. In 1910 in Africa Kühn found an altogether freer way of painting. Compared to the colors that now appear, which are naturally completely different, those of the preceding period appear dark and dull. The application of paint becomes impasto and strong. In the years of imprisonment, 1914-1919, Kühn took up the style of the Parisian period in order to arrive at means of expression that would do justice to the completely different environment. The color becomes stronger and more luminous, the composition more rigorous.
Kühn does not work in a socially critical manner; his portraits are attentively observed character studies. The differentiated observation and unpretentious reproduction are continuous features of his artistic work. Likewise, a poetry pervades all his works and gives especially his landscapes a pleasant lightness and serenity.