Museum Ludwig

Founded in 1976 in response to Peter and Irene Ludwig’s donation of some 350 works of modern art to the city of Cologne, Museum Ludwig was the first museum dedicated exclusively to twentieth-century and contemporary art. The museum now possesses the most extensive collection of American Pop Art anywhere outside the USA, as well as the world’s third-largest Picasso collection, an important collection of Russian avant-garde art, and a comprehensive collection of German Expressionists.

Media art in Museum Ludwig

From the outset, the value placed on technical media, photography, video and film matched that enjoyed by the more traditional genres of art. The purchase of forty artists’ films in the foundational year 1976 formed the basis of the museum’s video and film collection. Museum Ludwig established a photography department in 1977, and was thus one of the first German institutions to collect media art in its own right.

Orientation and future projects

In 2001/2002, the concept of the permanent collection was widened to include both contemporary and historical works via the “Museum of our Wishes”, a presentation highlighting the development of focal collection areas over the years and signalling a shift to a more contemporary orientation on the part of Museum Ludwig. Photographic and media art are now incorporated in the contemporary art presentations. Planning is underway for a major exhibition in 2010 providing a comprehensive survey of the moving-image collection.