Preview

2026 Program

2026 is set to be a very special year for Museum Ludwig. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary with an extensive program of exhibitions and presentations. Have a look! 

Ein schwarz-weiß Foto zeigt einen einen nackten Rücken einer Frau. Um die Hüfte und um den Kopf trägt sie ein Tuch. Auf das Foto sind Schalllöcher einer Geige gemalt.

Man Ray: Kiki

October 31, 2026 – April 7, 2027

Presentation in the Photography Rooms

Man Ray’s photograph of Alice Prin, popularly known as Kiki de Montparnasse (1901–1953), depicts her with her back turned and nude to below the waist, a cloth draped around her hips, another around her head. Inspired by Jean- Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s nudes from behind, Man Ray transposes the subject into the twentieth century, painting the f-holes of a violin on the photograph so as to turn Kiki’s back into the body of a stringed instrument. The print at Museum Ludwig comes from the Gruber Collection. Its exhibition explores the making and history of this masterpiece of Man Ray surrealism.

Curator: Miriam Szwast 

Ein älterer Mann steht in schwarzer Kleidung vor einem Toreingang aus Steinen. Der Mann schaut ernst und steht leicht abgewandt.

Lee Ufan
2026 Wolfgang Hahn Prize

November 7, 2026 – April 4, 2027

Ceremony and Opening: November 6, 2026, 6:30pm

South Korean artist Lee Ufan (born 1936, lives in Kamakura, Japan) has been awarded the 32nd Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig. 

His art brings together contrasting forces such as emptiness and tension, silence and energy. As co-founder of the Japanese minimalist Mono-ha movement (‘School of Things’), a collective of artists in Tokyo between 1968 and 1975, he continues to seek a harmonious reordering of things. Since the 1970s, his minimalist painting in particular has had a major impact on the international art scene.