Our Editor Is Escorted Though The Museum Ludwig By Prof. Kasper König, Director

Written by Otto Segnini Monday, 02 January 2012 22:45

After World War II, Cologne developed into a thriving art centre, achieving a level of excellence that was rooted in a long tradition. The city had exceptional museum collections that had been saved from destruction during the war.The contract signed on 5 February 1976 by Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig covering their donation to the City of Cologne marked the founding of Museum Ludwig. In the contract, Peter and Irene Ludwig agreed to endow 350 modern artworks and in return the City of Cologne committed itself to build a dedicated "Museum Ludwig" for works made after the year 1900. The "twin" museum designed by the architectural team Peter Busmann and Godfrid Haberer, and opened in 1986, became home to both the Wallraf Richartz Museum as well as Museum Ludwig. In 1994 it was decided to separate the two institutions and to place the building on Bischofsgartenstrasse at the sole disposal of Museum Ludwig. The collection at Museum Ludwig covers the major currents and approaches in twentieth century and contemporary art. The core collection was amassed by a Cologne lawyer, Dr. Josef Haubrich (1889-1961). Directly after World War 2, in May 1946, he presented the City of Cologne with his Expressionism collection (Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Otto Mueller) and works by other representatives of Classical Modernism (Marc Chagall, Otto Dix). In October 1946 a selection of 100 paintings was presented for the first time in the old University of Cologne. Among the visitors to this now legendary exhibition was a 21 year-old art history student from Mainz - Peter Ludwig. He was not only impressed by the art, but equally so by the collector and donor Josef Haubrich. As a person who had been denied the chance to see contemporary art in his youth as a result of the Nazi regime, after this encounter he resolved to likewise collect art and make it available to the general public. The first gift from the Ludwigs in 1976 brought works by the Russian avant-garde from the period 1905 to 1935 (Goncharova, Larionov, Exter, Popova, Malevich, Rodchenko) of singular quality and quantity to the newly founded museum. In addition to this came the most extensive AmericanPop Art Collection outside of the USA (including paintings, objects and environments by Lichtenstein, Rosenquist, Warhol and Wesselmann). In 1957 the collections were enriched by an important group of works by Max Beckmann in the form of the "Georg and Lilly von Schnitzler Bequest", and in 1958 the Willy Strecker Collection could be acquired and with that important works by among others Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Oskar Kokoschka and Paul Klee. Between the years 1976 and 1988 the husband and wife collectors Günther and Carola Peill donated bit by bit major works from their collection (paintings and graphics by Max Ernst, Alexej von Jawlensky, Willi Baumeister, and Ernst Wilhelm Nay). In 1994 Peter und Irene Ludwig handed the City of Cologne 90 works from their personal Picasso collection on condition that the Wallraf Richartz Museum moved to its own premises. The reopening of Museum Ludwig on 31 October 2001, an event that sadly one of the name givers was no longer alive to see, prompted Irene Ludwig to donate a further 774 works by Picasso. With that Museum Ludwig has the third largest Picasso Collection worldwide, after Barcelona and Paris. It offers a representative cross-section through every genre, material and technique explored by the artist. Time and again the tradition of collecting and donating has given new impetus to Museum Ludwig: its large exhibition for the reopening of the house - "Museum of our Wishes" (11 November 2001 to 28 April 2002) - made a direct appeal to the people of Cologne and their civic pride, as well as all the museum's other visitors, inviting them to take active part in shaping the museum by purchasing selected artworks and donating them to the museum.

The contract signed on 5 February 1976 by Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig concerning their donation to the City of Cologne marked the founding of Museum Ludwig. A beginning of a noble collection of at of the 20th century. Roy Lichtenstein's "M-Maybe", Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes and George Segal's "Restaurant Window", all icons of American Pop Art, had all just been completed when in 1969 they arrived at the Ludwig. The upper floors mostly contain works from the permanent collection, although here again individual galleries are used for temporary exhibitions of varying dimensions. The upper floors have galleries leading off from the uninterrupted axis that is referred to as the ‘museum street'; on the first floor they are only on one side of the axis, whereas on the second floor they are on both sides. Large galleries alternate with small rooms. At the end of the ‘street' a space rising over two floors provides a setting for large-scale installations. Here, at the eastern end, staircases again connect the three floors, thus enabling visitors to make their way through all the galleries. Other exhibition rooms are to be found on the first floor in the direction of the cathedral. Expressionist works are now on exhibition here. The tour of the museum is further enhanced by a series of openings that afford views of the Rhine, the cathedral, Heinrich-Böll-Platz and Hohenzollernbrücke bridge. The varied spatial concept offers visitors numerous options. They can decide themselves whether they want to see the whole museum or prefer to spend more time looking at the works on show in a certain section. Additional exhibition rooms are located on the lowest level next to the foyer of the Philharmonic Hall and can be opened to merge with it. The overall area of the exhibition spaces thus amounts to around 16,000 square metres. But there is more to come. The range of cultural services provided by the museum includes a library in the western part of the building opposite the entrance passageway. It has its own entrance, as does the cinema auditorium, which the North-Rhine Westphalia Film Forum (a society of eight partner organizations) has used since 2005. The roof terrace above, directly opposite the cathedral, serves as an open-air cinema in the summer. It is well worth returning to the complex some time on a summer evening just to enjoy watching a film in this incomparable setting. Museums need friends. Under this motto, the Freunde des Wallraf-Richartz-Museums und des Museums Ludwig e.V. has appealed over the years to the local citizens and won them over for the museums. With over 4,600 members, the Freunde is the oldest and largest museum association in Cologne. Its members span the generations and come from all walks of life and social spheres, and all live in Cologne and the vicinity.