Description

The East Westphalian countryside and the life of the farmers living in and working the land was the subject of Peter August Böckstiegel’s (1889–1951) oeuvre as a painter and sculptor throughout his life, although he lived in Dresden from 1913 to 1945 and only set up his easel in his homeland during the summer. It is therefore fortunate that the district of Gütersloh, which inherited the artist’s estate in 2007 when his son died, decided to build a new museum in 2014, held a competition and also built the first prize, so that his body of work can now be seen where it originated and not in the Saxon capital, which was also interested in exhibiting it.

To preserve the approximately 1300 works for the long term, to give them a fitting setting in which to show them – including about 400 paintings, as well as graphics, mosaics, sculptures and stained-glass windows – as well as to meet the lending conditions of other museums with which the Böckstiegel Museum cooperates, a new gallery space was needed. Habermann Decker placed the museum directly opposite Böckstiegel’s simple family home – often a motif in the artist’s work – in the middle of a meadow. The site was once a field and is now an orchard with a large window looking onto the family home. The sharply delineated volume with its shell limestone surfaces recalls forms seen in Expressionism and Cubism, but what sets it apart is that it is so different to the other residential, agricultural and small business typologies dotted all around the fields. As a work of architecture, while expressive, it may appear simple and reduced, but above all it is grounded in a spatial idea more than being guided by the sequence of a particular use associated with it.

This becomes immediately apparent on entering the exhibition space. The indentations in the façade have their inverse on the inside, producing a space of geometric complexity that only reveals itself at second glance. One’s first impression is of the surprising height of the room because the folds in the enveloping surfaces are not immediately apparent due to the subdued light and flat white even colour of the painted concrete. That said, the architects’ original intention to finish the interior in exposed concrete would probably have intensified the effect still further. The final white colour scheme, however, places the focus squarely on the paintings. Although a single-storey building was originally envisaged, a basement was also realised that houses the depot as well as a projection room and ancillary spaces. Private donations helped make this extension possible, and it ensures a sensible division of functions, so that the spatial clarity of the exhibition space can unfold its full potential.

Originally published in Bauwelt 5.2020, pp. 44-47, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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