Art from a four-legged friend: pig Pigcasso gets its own exhibition

The first exhibition of the painting pig "Pigcasso" in Germany has opened in Hannover Münden.

The South African owner of the animal, Joanne Lefson, also traveled to the city of three rivers for the vernissage on Friday.

From July 2nd to September 23rd the paintings will be on display for the public in the museum “Dr.

Wolfs Wunderkammer”.

The four-legged artist herself was not present at the vernissage - and for animal welfare reasons she will not come to Hannover Münden in the future either.

So that visitors do not have to do without the presence of the animal entirely, they will find original brushes that the pig used for painting, or real bristles of the animal, in the exhibition.

But the focus is on the artworks of the painting sow.

"You can probably best assign it to abstract expressionism," said museum owner Daniel Wolf.

He curated the images for the exhibition together with his wife Sarah.

"It was important to us that we depict the spectrum of the works from "Pigcasso" - that is, from simple calligraphic images to explosions of color," said Sarah Wolf.

An exhibition against factory farming

Halfway through the exhibition period, the works will be exchanged in order to be able to show more pictures.

Because the small museum actually has no space for an art exhibition.

For the "Pigcasso" pictures, the Wunderkammer was expanded by a room.

The exhibition area is just 57 square meters.

Nevertheless, in addition to the paintings by "Pigcasso", there is still room for works of other animals, such as a pony or a monkey - to bring visitors closer to the subject of animal art.

The exhibition, which animals are also allowed to visit, is intended to draw attention to the problems of factory farming and excessive meat consumption.

The owner of "Pigcasso" had saved the animal from the slaughterhouse when it was a month old.

Since then, the approximately 500-pound sow has been living at Lefson's sanctuary in South Africa.

The proceeds from the sale of pictures and the entrance fees are shared between the sanctuary and the museum's sponsoring association "Zeitsprung".

In December, a picture of the animal was sold for almost 26,000 euros - the highest amount ever paid for a picture of an animal.