From Hunting Hounds to Modernist Muses

A new exhibition in Germany traces how the low-slung breed captured the imaginations of artistic heavyweights like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and David Hockney. The museum even lets well-behaved pups tour the galleries. From Hunting Hounds to Modernist Muses, Dachshunds Have Done It All. See the World’s First Art Exhibition Dedicated Exclusively to the Sausage Dog.

Andy Warhol poses with his beloved dachshund Archie in November 1973. Jack Mitchell / Getty Images With their elongated spines and floppy ears, dachshunds have spent centuries burrowing into human hearts—and onto artists’ canvases. Now, a German art museum is turning the spotlight on this iconic breed as a muse and an enduring cultural emblem.

On Saturday, the Kunsthalle Bremen opened “ The Dachshund: An Icon Off the Leash,” an ambitious exhibition tracing the four-legged creature’s many footprints through art history. Spanning roughly 120 historic and contemporary works, the showcase is believed to be the world’s first exhibition dedicated exclusively to the dachshund in art. “There are many artists who owned dachshunds, who were inspired by the dachshund, loved the dachshund,” museum director Christoph Grunenberg tells Daniel Niemann of the Associated Press (AP).

“It was like a muse, and there is an incredible wealth of representation of the dachshund in very different styles by significant artists.” The exhibition gathers pieces by an all-star roster of admirers, including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Otto Dix and Max Liebermann. “It’s striking how often the dachshund has served as a muse, model and studio accomplice for them,” Annett Reckert, the exhibition’s curator, tells DW ’s Elizabeth Grenier.