Otto Dix house to be renovated and re-open as a museum
The artist’s former residence will be run by the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

By Clemens Bomsdorf and Rita Pokorny | Web only
Published online 23 Jul 09 (News)

Stuttgart. The house where the artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) spent his final years is to be renovated and become part of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, in southern Germany. “We are now in the final stage of the process to establish the Stiftung Otto Dix Haus [Otto Dix House Foundation] which will take over the building from the Dix heirs. The plan is to reopen it as a museum in 2010,” Daniel Spanke, curator at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, told The Art Newspaper.

The house, designed for Dix by the architect Arno Schlecher, is situated in the village of Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen on the Höri peninsula at Lake Constance, 150 km south of Stuttgart.

The artist, who is best known for his savage portraits of notable figures in pre-war Germany, and who was regarded as a “degenerate artist” by the Nazis, moved to Hemmenhofen in 1936, where he lived until his death in 1969.

Dix had mixed feelings about the idyllic location, once stating that it was “so beautiful that you have to vomit”. In the 1991 the house was opened to the public, but a lack of funding meant that the building gradually fell into a state of decay.

The estate will be run by the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and will show changing exhibitions of Dix’s works. An annual scholarship will be awarded to a young researcher to organise the shows. In addition there will be a permanent exhibition showing the home during the period when the artist lived there with his family.

The foundation has already raised more than €1.5m: the city of Stuttgart has given €250,000 and there have been significant contributions from the municipalities of Gaienhofen and Konstanz, as well as from private sponsors. Bettina Pfefferkorn, Dix’s grandchild, has also supported the project by selling the house to the foundation at 50% less than its estimated market value.