April 8, 2023, marked the fifti­eth an­niv­er­sary of Pab­lo Pi­cas­so’s death. Nu­mer­ous ex­hi­bi­tions in Eu­rope and the Unit­ed States are cele­brat­ing this ju­bilee by in­tro­duc­ing Pi­cas­so’s work to to­day’s au­di­ences un­der the ban­n­er of The Pi­cas­so 1973–2023 Cele­bra­tion. The hold­in­gs of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig in­clude the third-largest col­lec­tion of Pi­cas­sos in the world, and it is par­ti­ci­pat­ing in the an­niv­er­sary year with a pre­sen­ta­tion from the Graph­ic Col­lec­tions: Suite 156, a late work by the artist, con­sist­ing of 155 etch­in­gs from be­tween 1968 and 1972. The pre­sen­ta­tion of the se­ries of etch­in­gs is com­ple­ment­ed by a new piece by con­tem­po­rary Afghan artist Kubra Khade­mi.

Fran­cis Alÿs re­ceives the 2023 Wolf­gang Hahn Prize from the Ge­sellschaft für Mod­erne Kunst am Mu­se­um Lud­wig. The Mex­i­co Ci­ty–based artist (b. 1959 in An­tw­erp) studied ar­chi­tec­ture and ur­ban plan­n­ing and be­gan work­ing for lo­cal NGOs there in 1986, be­fore start­ing his ar­tis­tic ca­reer in 1990. As is cus­to­mary, the prize en­tails the ac­qui­si­tion of a work for the col­lec­tion of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig. Fran­cis Alÿs’s un­ti­tled two-part work is part of the so-called Sign Paint­ing Pro­ject (1993–1997). It will be on show in a pre­sen­ta­tion from Novem­ber 18, 2023 to April 7, 2024.

As an ex­hi­bi­­tion or­­ganiz­er, co­­foun­der of Skulp­­tur Pro­­jekte Mün­ster, cu­ra­­tor of the ma­jor ex­hi­bi­­tions West­­kunst and von hi­er aus as well as Man­i­fes­­ta in St. Peter­s­burg, Kasper König played an in­­­com­­para­ble role in shap­ing art dis­­­course over the past five de­­cades. He was di­rec­­tor of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig for twelve years (2000–12). In his view, a mu­se­um is a public place: “It be­­longs to ev­ery­one and no one.” König is now do­­nat­ing a se­lec­­tion of works from his pri­­vate col­lec­­tion to the Mu­se­um Lud­wig, which will be pre­sen­t­ed in one room within the mu­se­um’s per­­ma­­nent col­lec­­tion.

For the third edi­tion of the Schultze Pro­jects se­ries, Min­er­va Cue­vas (*1975 in Mex­i­co Ci­ty) has cre­at­ed a new site-spe­cif­ic work for the large front wall of the main stair­way at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig. The name of the se­ries re­fers to Ber­nard Schultze and his wife Ur­su­la (Schultze-Bluhm), whose es­tate is ma­n­aged by the Mu­se­um Lud­wig, and in whose me­m­o­ry pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly since 2017 an artist has been in­vit­ed to cre­ate a large-scale work for this pro­mi­nent lo­ca­tion.