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LUDWIG GOES POP. Pictures of a Century Collection October 2, 2014–January 11, 2015 Opening: October 1, Press reception: September 30

Thanks to Peter and Irene Ludwig, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne holds one of the internationally most significant collections of American Pop Art. In addition to the Cologne holdings, other parts of this collection are preserved at the mumok in Vienna, the Ludwig Forum in Aachen, and the Kunstmuseum Basel, as well as at the Ludwig museums in Budapest, St. Petersburg, and Beijing. Opening in fall 2014 LUDWIG GOES POP brings together for the first time around 150 key works by the leading figures of this art movement from the above-mentioned museums and in the process expands the historical picture of this world-class private collection.

When Peter Ludwig first encountered a Pop Art sculpture by George Segal at MoMA in the mid- 1960s, the collector, who together with his wife had up to then collected chiefly antique and medieval art, was shocked. Shortly thereafter, however, both became enthusiastic collectors of these then-current works. Tom Wesselman’s Landscape No. 2, featuring a VW bug cut out from an advertising poster and mounted on canvas, was their first purchase; soon followed key works by Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. These artists belonged to the same generation as the Ludwigs; they represented modern life, and the couple visited many of them directly in their studios.

Many works came from the renowned Scull and Kraushaar collections to Ludwig, a few derived from the holdings of the Wella manufacturer Karl Ströher in Darmstadt. In 1969, following documenta 4, the Ludwigs bought works directly from the exhibition, including M-Maybe—A Girl’s Picture by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg’s Soft Washstand, Rauschenberg’s Wall Street, George Segal’s Restaurant Window I, and Tom Wesselmann’s Great American Nude No. 98. That same year the Ludwigs presented their collection for the first time in Cologne, at the then Wallraf-Richartz Museum. The media and public responded enthusiastically to the exhibition, and it attracted around 200,000 visitors. In consequence Pop Art became the Museum Ludwig’s signature tune.

The exhibition will subsequently be shown at the mumok in Vienna. A comprehensive catalogue is being published in conjunction with the show.

Curator: Stephan Diederich