Archive

Every two to three years, an artist is invited to create a new work for the Museum Ludwig’s largest wall, located in front of the main staircase. For the fourth edition of Schultze Projects, artist Kresiah Mukwazhi (b. 1992 in Harare, Zimbabwe) has created a new mural.

The Museum Ludwig presented "Francis Alÿs – Kids Take Over", a remarkable exhibition in which children are the focus. Thirty video works from Alÿs’s ongoing series Children’s Games, showing children from around the world at play, were presented at the Museum Ludwig in dialogue with a group of paintings by the artist. An outreach project with local Cologne schoolchildren added a participatory dimension to the exhibition.

In a double presentation, the Museum Ludwig was showing newly acquired photographs by Alfred Ehrhardt (1901–1984) in dialogue with photographs by Elfriede Stegemeyer (1908–1988). Although the two photographers never met, they shared an interest in the subject matter of water, beaches, and sand for several years.

Anna Boghiguian (born 1946 in Cairo) will be awarded the 30th Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at Museum Ludwig. Boghiguian's work is often spontaneous and frequently created on location. She is considered a perceptive observer of the human condition and conveys an interpretation of contemporary life in which her content oscillates extremely cleverly between past and present, poetry and politics, history and literature.

"Fluxus and Beyond: Ursula Burghardt, Benjamin Patterson" at the Museum Ludwig took a fresh look at a 1960s art movement that continues to exert its influence. The exhibition focused on Ursula Burghardt (1928–2008) and Benjamin Patterson (1934–2016), two artists who despite their involvement in the Fluxus network remained on its periphery. As a result, their work is little known today.

On May 19, 2024, Cologne pho­to­g­ra­pher Karl Heinz Hargesheimer, who was known as Chargesheimer (1924–1971), would have turned one hun­dred. To cele­brate the cen­te­nary of his birth, Mu­se­um Lud­wig dis­played a se­lec­tion of around fif­ty of his works in the Pho­tog­ra­phy Room. Chargesheimer rose to fame with his pho­to books Cologne in­time and Un­ter Krah­nen­bäu­men, both of which fo­cus on ev­ery­day life in Cologne.

Through its re­cur­rent HERE AND NOW se­ries, the Mu­se­um Lud­wig ques­tions con­ven­tio­n­al ways of ex­hi­bi­tion-mak­ing and ex­amines its own work as an in­sti­tu­tion. The tenth pro­ject in the se­ries, And Yes­ter­day and To­mor­row, brings to­gether se­lect­ed con­tem­po­rary and his­tor­i­cal art­works with sci­en­tif­ic ma­te­rial to ex­plore our ex­pe­ri­ences of time and the places we oc­cu­py.

For the third edition of the Schultze Projects series, Minerva Cuevas (*1975 in Mexico City) created a new site-specific work for the large front wall of the main stairway at the Museum Ludwig.

Mu­se­um Lud­wig was pleased to pre­sent Roni Horn: Give Me Para­dox or Give Me Death, a so­lo ex­hi­bi­tion of works by in­flu­en­tial Amer­i­can artist Roni Horn. The ex­hi­bi­tion in­cludes over 100 works, span­n­ing from the be­gin­n­ing of the artist’s de­cades long ca­reer to pre­sent day. Roni Horn's work spans from pho­tog­ra­phy to draw­ing, artist books, sculp­ture, and in­s­tal­la­tion. Be­hind this open­ness lies the artist's un­der­s­tand­ing that ev­ery­thing in the world is mutable and can­not be sub­ject­ed to fixed at­tri­bu­tion.

Fran­cis Alÿs re­ceived 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 was 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 was do­nat­ing a se­lec­tion of works from his pri­vate col­lec­tion to the Mu­se­um Lud­wig, which was pre­sent­ed in one room within the mu­se­um’s per­ma­nent col­lec­tion.

Ger­man pho­to­g­ra­pher Walde Huth (1923–2011) spent her en­tire ca­reer ex­plor­ing tex­tiles and fab­rics. Start­ing with com­mis­sions in the ear­ly 1950s, in­clud­ing those from the vel­vet fac­to­ry Gottlieb Ott Sohn, she was able to en­ter the in­ter­na­tio­n­al world of fashion as a pho­to­g­ra­pher, work­ing with de­sign­ers of the “New Look” such as Chris­tian Dior and Jac­ques Fath.

April 8, 2023, marked the fifti­eth an­niver­sary of Pab­lo Pi­cas­so’s death. Nu­mer­ous ex­hi­bi­tions in Eu­rope and the Unit­ed States were 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 was 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 was com­ple­ment­ed by a new piece by con­tem­po­rary Afghan artist Kubra Khade­mi (b. 1989 in Ghor, Afghanis­tan).

Fü­sun Onur, who was born in Is­tan­bul in 1938 and cur­rent­ly based there, is one of the most out­s­tand­ing artists work­ing in Türkiye to­day. Al­though her im­pres­sive and varied oeu­vre has been read­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble to an in­ter­na­tio­n­al au­di­ence in group ex­hi­bi­tions on a reg­u­lar ba­sis, it has not been suf­fi­cient­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed. The first sur­vey ex­hi­bi­tion of her work was held at Arter in Is­tan­bul, ten years ago. The Mu­se­um Lud­wig pre­sent­ed her work to a larg­er au­di­ence in a ma­jor ret­ro­spec­tive.

The exhibition series HERE AND NOW at Museum Ludwig challenges the conventions of museum work from today’s perspective. Russia’s war against Ukraine changes our approach toward the concept of “Russian avant-garde”. Many artists – al­so in the Mu­se­um Lud­wig col­lec­tion – who are as­so­ci­at­ed with this art move­ment came from Ukraine or shaped Ukrai­nian cul­ture. The exhibition dedicated to modernism in Ukraine brought together some eighty paintings and works on paper created between the 1900s and 1930s. This new art-his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive was ex­pand­ed with a con­tri­bu­tion by the con­tem­po­rary artist Daria Kolt­so­va. She pre­sented a work that deals with the cul­tu­r­al her­i­tage in the face of war.

The point of de­­par­­ture for the Pho­­tog­ra­­phy Room pre­sen­­ta­­tion was the work Mas­ter Ri­t­u­als II: We­s­t­on Nudes by the artist Tar­rah Kra­j­­nak. It was com­bined with works by VA­LIE EX­­PORT, San­­ja Ive­­cov­­ić, Ana Men­di­e­­ta, and Car­rie Mae Weems. Cre­at­ed over a pe­ri­od of fif­­ty years be­tween 1972 and 2021, the se­lec­t­ed works are unit­ed in their use of per­­for­­ma­­tive and pho­­to­­graph­ic ap­proach­es that in­­­clude the artists’ own bodies.

Ur­su­la Schultze-Bluhm, who is known sim­p­ly as Ur­su­la, was one of the most im­por­tant Ger­man artists of the se­cond half of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. She was born in Mit­ten­walde, Ger­many, in 1921 and died in Cologne in 1999. Mu­se­um Lud­wig’s ex­hi­bi­tion Ur­su­la—That’s Me. So What?, which is the first com­pre­hen­sive mu­se­um show on the artist in over thir­ty years, of­fers a fresh look at her oeu­vre.

Frank Bowl­ing (b.1934, Bar­ti­ca, Guya­na) was award­ed the 2022 Wolf­gang Hahn Prize by the Ge­sellschaft für Mod­erne Kunst am Mu­se­um Lud­wig. The award cer­e­mony al­ways al­so in­cludes an ac­qui­si­tion for the col­lec­tion of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig. Thanks to the artist’s generos­i­ty, the 2022 Wolf­gang Hahn Prize marked the first ac­qui­si­tion of one of his works for a public col­lec­tion in Ger­many. Frank Bowl­ing's paint­ing Flog­ging the Dead Don­key (2020) be­came part of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig col­lec­tion.

On October 30, 2022, photography collector Renate Gruber passed away. The Museum Ludwig bade her farewell with a presentation in the Photography Room. Works from the Gruber Collection and Archive were on display together with views of her home, which for many was a sort of institution in Cologne.

The eighth pro­ject in the ex­hi­bi­tion se­ries HERE AND NOW at Mu­se­um Lud­wig em­barked on an an­ti-colo­nial jour­ney through the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion. To­gether with the artists Daniela Or­tiz (*1985 in Pe­ru), Pau­la Baeza Pail­amil­la (*1988 in Chile), Pav­el Agui­lar (*1989 in Hon­duras), and Palo­ma Ay­ala (*1980 in Mex­i­co), we took a crit­i­cal and cu­ri­ous look at artis­tic po­si­tions from Latin Amer­i­ca.

What do plants mean to human beings? The exhibition Green Modernism: The New View of Plants took us back to the early twentieth century and examines the depiction of plants in the visual arts and how they were viewed in botany and society in general. After all, as plain as potted plants in pictures may appear at first glance, and as matter-of-fact as botanical reports read, they always also attest to the contradictions, fears, longings, and ideologies of the modern age.

The exhibition Mapping the Collection takes a new look at two influential decades in American (art) history: the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition presents a selection of artworks from the Museum Ludwig’s collection by female, queer, and indigenous artists as well as artists of color who are not represented in the collection, as an impetus for a broader reception of American art.

In 2006, the Museum Ludwig acquired eleven works from the series Ruhrlandschaften (Ruhr Landscapes) by Joachim Brohm (*1955) from between 1981 and 1983. The Museum Ludwig presented these photographs in the Photography Room.

For the ex­hi­bi­tion “HERE AND NOW at Mu­se­um Lud­wig: Dy­nam­ic Spaces”, the Mu­se­um Lud­wig collaborated with the plat­form Con­tem­po­rary And (C&). Found­ed by Ju­lia Grosse and Yvette Mu­tum­ba, C& sees it­self as “a dy­nam­ic space for is­sues and in­for­ma­tion on con­tem­po­rary art from Afri­ca and its Glob­al Di­as­po­ra.

The photo al­bum “A­the­nien­sische Al­terthümer” by Fe­lix Alex­an­der Op­pen­heim was ex­hi­b­it­ed for the first time, thus re­veal­ing a mo­ment in his­to­ry when the en­thu­si­asm for an­tiqui­ty, ear­ly arche­ol­o­gy, the politics of sym­bols in Greece, and the strug­gle for right­ful own­er­ship cre­at­ed a con­text rich in words and im­ages for th­ese si­lent ruins.

Dank einer Schenkung des Kölner Sammlers Ulrich Reininghaus besitzt das Museum - als einzige öffentliche Institution - seit 2018 eine vollständige Sammlung von Palermos Editionen. Nun wird diese Sammlung zum ersten Mal präsentiert.

On the revision of the Museum Ludwig collection.

Born in 1972, the American artist Wade Guyton has created a consistent and distinct oeuvre for more than two decades. After acquiring several of the artist’s works for the collection, the Museum Ludwig is hosting a major survey exhibition.

On the occasion of the Bauhaus anniversary, the Museum Ludwig is dedicated a presentation in the photography room to the photographer and historian of photography Lucia Moholy. In addition to her photographs, letters from the Museum Ludwig archives were be presented.

Aware of the fact that institutions create and deny access in a complex way, "Transcorporealities" asked who or what defines the boundaries of bodies and museums.

In the 1990s a new art scene be­gan to form in Cologne. Alexan­der Schröder fol­lowed th­ese de­vel­op­ments from Ber­lin, and be­gan col­lect­ing art from the 1990s and 2000s with his spe­cial eye.

In 2017 the Mu­se­um Lud­wig launched a new pro­ject se­ries en­ti­tled "Schultze Pro­jects" with a five-part work by Wade Guy­ton cre­at­ed es­pe­cial­ly for this oc­ca­sion.

On the oc­ca­sion of the 80th birth­day of Ben­jamin Katz the Mu­se­um Lud­wig pre­sented his se­ries of pho­to­graphs "Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)", which has nev­er be­fore been shown in its en­tire­ty. The pho­to­graphs rep­re­sent a so­cio-his­tor­i­cal as well as an artis­tic and per­so­n­al doc­u­ment, since they re­cord Katz’s be­gin­n­ings as a pho­to­g­ra­pher.

The Mu­se­um Lud­wig in­vit­ed the artist and film­mak­er Fio­na Tan to re­al­ize an ex­hi­bi­tion pro­ject with the mu­se­um’s pho­tog­ra­phy col­lec­tion as the start­ing point.

In 2019, the Ge­sellschaft für Mod­erne Kunst am Mu­se­um Lud­wig rec­og­nized Jac Leirn­er with the 25th edition of the Wolf­gang Hahn Prize. The Brazilian artist has been pur­su­ing a sub­tle anal­y­sis of so­cial and rep­re­sen­ta­tio­n­al sys­tems for many years.

Since the 1970s, Nil Yal­ter has been work­ing as a pi­oneer of so­cial­ly en­gaged and tech­ni­cal­ly ad­vanced art.The Mu­se­um Lud­wig will hosted the Turk­ish artist’s first ma­jor sur­vey ex­hi­bi­tion.

David Hockney and Richard Hamilton: two greats artists as British and as famous as the Beatles. The Museum Ludwig was highlighting their subversive beginnings with rarely exhibited works on paper and two films by James Scott.

The year 2019 will mark the 250th an­niver­sary of the birth of Alexan­der von Hum­boldt (1769–1859). The Mu­se­um Lud­wig is tak­ing this an­niver­sary as an oc­ca­sion to trace Hum­boldt’s con­nec­tion to pho­tog­ra­phy.

Her role as a ded­i­cat­ed pro­po­nent, me­di­a­tor, and long­time com­panion of Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky is well known and rec­og­nized. This ex­hi­bi­tion de­mon­s­trated Gabriele Mün­ter’s im­por­tance and in­de­pen­dence as a pain­ter.

This sur­vey ex­hi­bi­tion pre­sented the mu­tu­al in­flu­ence be­tween Ger­man and Amer­i­can po­si­tions in the dense cul­tu­r­al land­s­cape of the Rhine­land from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Aenne Bi­er­mann (1898–1933) took pho­to­graphs of her im­me­di­ate sur­round­in­gs from 1925 un­til her ear­ly death, and this body of work helped shape mod­er­nist pho­tog­ra­phy.

The Museum Ludwig showcased the remarkable versatility of Haegue Yangs' entire oeuvre in the artist’s first-ever survey exhibition

Günter Peter Straschek was a filmmaker, researcher, and probably the most knowledgeable person about the film emigration from Nazi Germany.

With sym­pa­thy and ob­serv­ing dis­tance, the pho­to­g­ra­pher cou­ple Pirk­le Jones and Ruth-Mari­on Baruch cap­tured the 1960s in San Fran­cis­co.

In a major retrospective, the Museum Ludwig is showing the breathtaking works of the Pop artist James Rosenquist.

Werner Mantz is known as one of the most prominent photographers of the Neues Bauen movement of modernist architecture in Cologne during the 1920s. In a second creative period he returned to portrait photography. .

On the cen­te­nary of Hein­rich Böll’s birth, the Mu­se­um Lud­wig ex­amined Böll’s re­la­tion­ship to pho­tog­ra­phy and tak­ing pho­to­graph­s.

The group ex­hi­bi­tion We Call It Lud­wigis the high point of the land­mark year 2016 at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig

Karl Schenk­er (1886–1954) was one of the best-known so­ci­e­ty pho­to­g­ra­phers in the 1910s and ’20s

The second exhibition in the series HERE AND NOW did not take place in the museum, but in six private homes in Cologne

The Chinese artists is the recipient of the 22. Wolfgang Hahn Prize, presenting an exhibition in the grand stairwell of the museum

The first ret­ro­spec­tive that fo­cus­es on Fer­nand Léger’s mu­rals, casting a new light on one of the most di­verse and in­flu­en­tial artists of mod­er­nism.

The first part of the new exhibition series HERE AND NOW takes Zobernig's installation for the Venice Biennale in 2015 as a starting point

The Mu­se­um Lud­wig is presenting a restrospective exhibition of the legendary artist Joan Mitchell, one of the most im­­por­­tant fig­ures in twen­ti­eth-cen­­tu­ry art

Ber­nard Schultze (1915–2005) was a lead­ing ex­po­nent of ges­tu­ral ab­s­tract paint­ing in Eu­rope. The Museum Ludwig is pay­ing ho­mage to him on the cen­ten­nial of his birth.

The Vietnamese artist Danh Võ is presenting his most well-known long-term project 'We The People', amongst other works

For the first time, the Wolfgang Hahn Prize was awarded to two artists: Michael Krebber and R.H. Quaytman

For the first time, all the me­dia with which the artist en­gaged in­ten­sive­ly through­out his ca­reer are brought to­gether in one ex­hi­bi­tion, with works dating from 1963 through 2010.

The exhibition shows works by 15 artists who followed a documentary approach in their photography in the so-called crisis decades after 1979

Do we need a museum of photography? Taking a closer look at the collector Erich Stenger (1878–1958) and his collection, the exhibition submits his idea to a revision

Oscar Tuazon has realized a site-specific installation at the Museum Ludwig, rebulding parts of a private home inside the museum's wide open staircase

Pierre Huyghe has transformed the exhibition space into a whole world of its own, bringing together liv­ing sys­tems, ob­jects, films, pho­to­graphs, draw­ings, and mu­sic

Peter and Irene Lud­wig brought Pop Art to Ger­many. The exhibition brings it to­gether in a large sur­vey ex­hi­bi­tion with works from the other Lud­wig Mu­se­ums around the world

2 – the title is the agenda. The largest room in the museum is divided into two parts, one light and the other dark, showing recent works rangeing from prints, woodcuts, photgraphs, to a large-scale video-installation

See­ing fa­miliar things with new eyes and com­ing up with dif­fer­ent sto­ries. The new presentation of the collection

The Museum Ludwig mounted the first solo exhibition of work by Californian artist Kathryn Andrews to be seen in a public institution

From 24 May through 25 August 2013, the Museum Ludwig showcased - as the first ever German institution to do so - the US American artist Jo Baer (b.1929 in Seattle, lives since 1984 in Amsterdam) in a solo exhibition

The first retrospective exhibition by the American Performance artist in an institution

At the heart of Phil Collins' work is the individual in our media society. A new comprehensive project has been created especially for the Museum Ludwig

The Museum Ludwig presents the complete mural-collage created by Saul Steinberg for EXPO 58 in Brussels for the first time since its entirety

The outstanding archive of an extraordinary friendship

Cinetic machine-sculptures with cryptic humour

Landscape paintings, iPad-Drawings, and Multi-Focus-Films offer a broad overview of the recent work by the British artist

A Retrospektive of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps

The most comprehensive exhibition to date focusing on the monumental oeuvre of the 1950s to 70s by the Pop-Artist

An overview of 12 years at the Museum Ludwig - The last presentation of the collection by the former director

The first European retrospective of the influential choreographer and filmmaker

The Danish artist was the 2012 recipient of the Wolfgang Hahn Prize awarded by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig

Graphic works and audio plays by German artist Ferdinand Kriwet

The parable “Before the Law” by Franz Kafka (1915) serves as a guiding motif for this exhibition idea

On the occasion of the first anniversary of her passing, the Museum Ludwig has installed a room with works from the private residence of Peter and Irene Ludwig

The Museum Ludwig is presenting an exhibition of the artist Cosima von Bonin, which will develop as a 'Work in Progress' in four European cities

Pablo Picasso was not only a great artist but also a master of self-dramatization