Artist Klaus Rinke’s L.A. Home and Studio Has Already Found a Buyer

After hitting the market May 11 for nearly $3.5 million, a classic white home in Los Angeles featuring a locally famous sculptural cactus garden has already gone under contract.

Klaus Rinke, who died earlier this year at age 86, long called the 1907 Craftsman-style cottage home. Records show the pioneering conceptual artist purchased the place in the artsy, seaside community of Venice in late 1987 for just $175,000, later adding a massive, attached art studio.

Kelly deLaat and Rachelle Rosten of Douglas Elliman hold the listing, which is being marketed as a “compelling development or expansion canvas.”

RELATED: Artist Ed Ruscha’s Onetime L.A. Compound Just Listed for $4.6 Million

Tucked away on a double corner lot spanning less than a quarter of an acre, the horizontal lap-sided and shingled structure sits just minutes away from the area’s bustling Abbot Kinney Boulevard and picturesque canals. Roughly 1,500 square feet of “quirky,” open-concept living space across two levels has two bedrooms, one full bathroom, and a powder room, plus the original wide-plank wood flooring.

Upon entering the main level, a spacious wood-beamed great room sports a living area with a built-in sofa and a dining space flanked by large windows overlooking the cactus gardens. An adjacent U-shaped eat-in kitchen is outfitted with honey-toned cabinetry. Steps from a hallway and powder room lead down to the attached art studio, where the Germany-born artist painted, sculpted, photographed, and conceptualized installations while splitting time between L.A. and Austria.

RELATED: This $16.5 Million Craftsman Compound Brings Color and Character to L.A.’s Venice Neighborhood

Holding court on the second floor are the primary and secondary bedrooms, which share a full bathroom. Outside, the fully fenced yard hosts an alfresco dining patio and a flat, grassy lawn, while an automated security gate leads to a detached carport and driveway with parking for four vehicles.

Famed as a pioneering body, performance, and conceptual artist, Rinke’s work is displayed in major museum collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. He’s also known for cofounding the influential ⁠Düsseldorf Scene in the late 1960s, alongside his contemporaries Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter.

His “living sculptures,” as he called them, were never boring—whether he was contorting his own body into various forms or simply tending to his immense cactus collection. “My cactus are my living sculptures,” he said in the short 2023 documentary film, The Cactus of Klaus, directed by Tony Blahd and Lydia Fine. “I will die and they’re still there, in memory of me.”

Click here for more photos of the Venice residence.