New in the Collection

The Best of the Museum Ludwig

With the most comprehensive Pop Art collection outside of the United States, the third-largest Picasso Collection in the world, one of the most important collections of Expressionism, and an internationally significant collection of photography, the Museum Ludwig is one of the most celebrated museums for art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries worldwide. Another area of emphasis that has been consistently expanded up to the present is the collection of contemporary art—because a collection is never complete.

Jackson Pollock, Black and White No. 15, 1951, © Pollock-Krasner Foundation/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

In 1955 Jackson Pollock began developing a vigorous, spontaneous painting technique called Action Painting. He laid the canvas on the ground, circled around it, and dribbled and splashed the paint onto the picture’s surface. The result was a dense tangle of lines that filled the surface like an undergrowth. These paintings have neither a beginning nor an end; without a focal point, the strains of paint cover the entire picture. Black and White No.15 combines abstract trails of paint with hints of figuration. A face or a mask emerges here and there between the black strains of paint, only to disappear again in a jumble of lines. Pollock, who strived to attain a trance-like state while painting, explained: “When you're working out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.”

Jackson Pollock

Black and White No. 15, 1951

In 1955 Jackson Pollock began developing a vigorous, spontaneous painting technique called Action Painting. He laid the canvas on the ground, circled around it, and dribbled and splashed the paint onto the picture’s surface. The result was a dense tangle of lines that filled the surface like an undergrowth. These paintings have neither a beginning nor an end; without a focal point, the strains of paint cover the entire picture. Black and White No.15 combines abstract trails of paint with hints of figuration. A face or a mask emerges here and there between the black strains of paint, only to disappear again in a jumble of lines. Pollock, who strived to attain a trance-like state while painting, explained: “When you're working out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.”

Andy Warhol, Two Elvis, 1963, silkscreen on canvas, 206 x 148 cm, Andy Warhol Artwork, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Andy Warhol dissolved the boundaries between art and commerce with his works and in the process harkened back to everyday motifs from the world of consumption. In 1962 he began his portrait series of famous personalities, to which the work Double Elvis also belongs. As source material he used a motif from the 1960 western Flaming Star, in which Elvis plays a cowboy. Warhol’s portrait depicts an inapproachable hero from the world of commerce who, with the aid of the silver background, is elevated to an icon. The lustrous material, however, is not a precious metal but an imitation—an allusion to superficiality and the glamorous appearance of Hollywood.

Andy Warhol

Two Elvis, 1963

Andy Warhol dissolved the boundaries between art and commerce with his works and in the process harkened back to everyday motifs from the world of consumption. In 1962 he began his portrait series of famous personalities, to which the work Double Elvis also belongs. As source material he used a motif from the 1960 western Flaming Star, in which Elvis plays a cowboy. Warhol’s portrait depicts an inapproachable hero from the world of commerce who, with the aid of the silver background, is elevated to an icon. The lustrous material, however, is not a precious metal but an imitation—an allusion to superficiality and the glamorous appearance of Hollywood.

Martin Kippenberger, Sympathische Kommunistin (Likeable Communist),1983, oil on canvas, 180 x 150 cm, © Estate Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Köln, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Attracting attention any cost was Martin Kippenberger’s artistic strategy. With irony, provocation, and wit he challenged social norms and satirized politics and the art scene. As such, in the midst of the Cold War, he painted this work, which he cheekily titled The Sympathetic Communist. It depicts the portrait of a woman wearing a black cap with a red star—a Budjonovka, the typical hat worn by the Soviet Army. Although Kippenberger, as a Western artist, indulged in complete artistic freedom, he provocatively painted precisely the sort of painting that Soviet state authorities from would have demanded from Eastern Bloc artists.

Martin Kippenberger

Likeable Communist, 1983

Attracting attention any cost was Martin Kippenberger’s artistic strategy. With irony, provocation, and wit he challenged social norms and satirized politics and the art scene. As such, in the midst of the Cold War, he painted this work, which he cheekily titled The Sympathetic Communist. It depicts the portrait of a woman wearing a black cap with a red star—a Budjonovka, the typical hat worn by the Soviet Army. Although Kippenberger, as a Western artist, indulged in complete artistic freedom, he provocatively painted precisely the sort of painting that Soviet state authorities from would have demanded from Eastern Bloc artists.

Mark Rothko, Earth and Green, 1955, oil on canvas, 231,5 x 187 cm, © Kate Rothko-Prizel & Christopher Rothko / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

At the age of forty-six Mark Rothko broke with representational painting and turned to abstraction. From 1950 on he painted floating, monochrome planes focused solely on the impact of color. Along with Barnett Newman he is one of the leading exponents of Color Field Painting of the 1950s. In this painting two rectangles are arranged parallel to one another on a blue background. Through their blurred and hazy contours the forms seem to float in a blue space and to almost disappear in it. As such, the dissolution of the chromatic structure creates a meditative, supernatural effect.

Mark Rothko

Earth and Green, 1955

At the age of forty-six Mark Rothko broke with representational painting and turned to abstraction. From 1950 on he painted floating, monochrome planes focused solely on the impact of color. Along with Barnett Newman he is one of the leading exponents of Color Field Painting of the 1950s. In this painting two rectangles are arranged parallel to one another on a blue background. Through their blurred and hazy contours the forms seem to float in a blue space and to almost disappear in it. As such, the dissolution of the chromatic structure creates a meditative, supernatural effect.

Jeff Wall, Woman and her Doctor, 1980-1981, cibachrome light box, 101 x 156 cm, © Jeff Wall, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

What initially appears to be a shapshot or a film still is, in reality, carefully orchestrated. The arrangement of the light, color, and details is part of the composition. Jeff Wall worked on the image for several months; it is not by chance that he is called the “painting photographer.” It is the unspectacular that makes his images spectacular: the casual moment, the small gestures and fleeting glances. Underscored by the title Woman and Her Doctor, ambiguous intellectual games impose themselves on the relationship between the two figures—Wall’s work narrates a story whose outcome only the viewer knows. Wall belongs to the artists of the Vancouver school, a group of artists who in the 1980s investigated the artistic and social effects of photography.

Jeff Wall

Woman and her Doctor, 1980-1981

What initially appears to be a shapshot or a film still is, in reality, carefully orchestrated. The arrangement of the light, color, and details is part of the composition. Jeff Wall worked on the image for several months; it is not by chance that he is called the “painting photographer.” It is the unspectacular that makes his images spectacular: the casual moment, the small gestures and fleeting glances. Underscored by the title Woman and Her Doctor, ambiguous intellectual games impose themselves on the relationship between the two figures—Wall’s work narrates a story whose outcome only the viewer knows. Wall belongs to the artists of the Vancouver school, a group of artists who in the 1980s investigated the artistic and social effects of photography.

Edward Kienholz, The Portable War Memorial, 1968, mixed media and objects, tape, Coca-Cola-machine, 285 x 240 x 950 cm, © Edward Kienholz, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Edward Kienholz was inspired for this work by the restoration of the island of Iwo Jima, which the US had seized in 1946, to Japan in 1968. The motif of the group of soldiers derived from a prize-winning press photo that a journalist had shot after the capture of the island. Although the photo was posed, the motif was used for postage stamps, posters, and a famous war memorial near Washington DC. Metal handles on the plate on which Kienholz’s group of headless soldiers stands refer to the title: The Portable War Memorial. With it, memorials appear just as exchangeable as the 475 nations, drawn on the chalkboard, that once existed around the world. Wars have redrawn the borders. On the far left, the woman in a barrel represents the pop singer Kate Smith, who became famous in 1938 with her rendition of “God Bless America.” Next to her hangs the mobilization poster with Uncle Sam, which was used to recruit soldiers in 1917. On the right, everyday life continues as usual, just a small, burned Tarzan at the very bottom of the right gravestone recalls the nuclear threat overshadowing the daily routine.

Edward Kienholz

The Portable War Memorial, 1968

Edward Kienholz was inspired for this work by the restoration of the island of Iwo Jima, which the US had seized in 1946, to Japan in 1968. The motif of the group of soldiers derived from a prize-winning press photo that a journalist had shot after the capture of the island. Although the photo was posed, the motif was used for postage stamps, posters, and a famous war memorial near Washington DC. Metal handles on the plate on which Kienholz’s group of headless soldiers stands refer to the title: The Portable War Memorial. With it, memorials appear just as exchangeable as the 475 nations, drawn on the chalkboard, that once existed around the world. Wars have redrawn the borders. On the far left, the woman in a barrel represents the pop singer Kate Smith, who became famous in 1938 with her rendition of “God Bless America.” Next to her hangs the mobilization poster with Uncle Sam, which was used to recruit soldiers in 1917. On the right, everyday life continues as usual, just a small, burned Tarzan at the very bottom of the right gravestone recalls the nuclear threat overshadowing the daily routine.