The building was built in 1735 by the Electoral Palatinate mint keeper Anton Cajeth. Here Egon Hassbecker founded a gallery & bookshop and a museum for primitive painting - Outsider Art.
It shows pictures of people who did not aspire to be artists, but who were driven by a strong need to express themselves through painting. They grew up in rural, artisanal societies and worked hard all their lives. As they grew older, they began to paint with their own, self-invented means and created unique pictures of unmistakable expression - all on their own. Pictures that are characterised by successful, significant form.
The collection comprises numerous works by comparatively few artists. This concentration demonstrates the importance of the biographical in Egon Hassbecker's approach to art and artists. All the works are testimonies to individual destinies.
