World Culture: Museums of Cologne receive around 500 Russian Avant-garde works

The City of Cologne will receive spectacular gifts and permanent loans from the bequest of Irene Ludwig for the Museum Ludwig and the Museum Schnütgen. A total of 528 works from the estate of Prof. Ludwig will permanently enrich Cologne’s collections.

Irene and Peter Ludwig always maintained an intense and close relationship with Cologne. The couple began to acquire works for public collections in 1957. In 1963 the first Ludwig purchases entered the Museum Schnütgen as deeply appreciated loans. Peter and Irene Ludwig initiated the founding of the Museum Ludwig in 1976 when they donated about 400 works. Further generous gifts followed, especially in 1994 and 2001, when Director Kasper König began his tenure and Irene Ludwig transferred 774 works by Pablo Picasso. Today, the Museum Ludwig owns the third largest Picasso collection.

The Museum Ludwig is one of the world’s most important museums of modern and contemporary art, quoted alongside the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Ownership of all Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Russian/Soviet Avant-garde works on permanent loan to the Museum Ludwig at the time of Irene Ludwig’s death will be transferred to the City of Cologne, comprising major works by such artists as Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and Natalia Goncharova. The total number of works is 473, among them 130 paintings, sculptures, and objects, and 153 works on paper, and 190 photographs by 84 artists.

Thanks to this bequest, the Museum Ludwig now owns numerous central Russian Avant-garde works, making it one of the most important collections outside Russia.

The comprehensive Russian Avant-garde Collection was first exhibited in two special shows at Cologne’s Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle in 1986 and 1993. At this point, the material has been re-examined as part of the project series “Russian Avant-garde.” Until now, two catalogues entitled “Der Kubofuturismus und der Aufbruch der Moderne in Russland” and “Kasimir Malewitsch und der Suprematismus in der Sammlung Ludwig.” have been produced.