Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst

The Ludwig Forum for International Art is a museum of modern art in Aachen. It is based on the Ludwig Collection, which together contributed the couple Irene and Peter Ludwig.

Museum

Since 1968, the art historian Wolfgang Becker worked closely with the collector couple Ludwig and so in 1970 the Municipal Museum Neue Galerie was - Sammlung Ludwig founded in Aachen. At that time, located in the Old Kurhaus Aachen, it was 1991, the Ludwig Forum for International Art. In 1928, built in the International style former umbrella factory Emil Brauer contemporary art is presented since then.

The design for the former umbrella factory Emil Brauer, a building in the Bauhaus style, derived from the architectural firm Josef Bachmann and Alex Lürken in Aachen. From 1979, the multi-year renovation was carried out according to the plans of Erich Rossmann ( 1925-2010 ) & Partner in Karlsruhe.

The collection of the Ludwig Forum comprises some 3,000 works primarily from the collection of Aachen collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig from all genres of art, and from many countries. The Ludwig Collection is best known for its pop-art resources and focus on American art since the 1960s. 1977 was the first Pop Art collector couple in East Berlin. Thereupon a lively exchange developed with artists from East Germany. In the 1980s and 1990s, Louis traveled to Russia and soon began to collect the then current Chinese art. Today, many of these positions and artistic personalities are world famous, such as Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Huang Yong Ping and Ai Weiwei. In addition, an important collection of video art was set up in the house, the approximately 200 works have become part of urban ownership today.

Some of the work that is home to the Ludwig Forum, missing in any encyclopedia to recent art history and thus belong to a kind of world memory of 20th century art. These include, for example, the photorealistic painting " Medici " by Franz Gertsch or the sculptural group " Bowery Bums " by Duane Hanson, showing three beggars of the street called the Bowery in Manhattan. Both works were exhibited in 1972 at the now legendary documenta 5 in Kassel Harald Szeemann. Von Hanson comes the " Aachener Mona -Lisa " is fondly called " Supermarket Lady " designated hyper-realistic sculpture of a woman with shopping cart. Also the "Ballerina Clown " by Jonathan Borofsky which is constructed in the courtyard of the Ludwig Forum, looking far into the history and across continents. He has a twin in Los Angeles, on the roof of the Public Library of Santa Monica, right on the Pacific Ocean. The result of the clown is originally designed for today by experts to be at scale exhibition " Metropolis", which was shown in early 1991 in Berlin Gropius-Bau and was out of which acquired the work for Aachen, for the reopening of the Ludwig Forum in the summer of the same year.

The house has been run by three directors. Founding director Wolfgang Becker was in office from 1970 to 2001. Under his aegis have significant exhibitions, as cliche / anti- cliché (1970), " Robert Filliou: Commemor " took place (1970 ) or the Havana Biennial (1998). From 2002 to 2008 Harald Kunde directed the fortunes of the Ludwig Forum and positioned the house with monographic exhibitions by renowned contemporary artists such as Sophie Calle (2005 ), Franz Gertsch (2006), Chuck Close (2007) and Atelier van Lieshout (2008). Since 2009, Brigitte Franzen, one of the curators of the Skulptur.Projekte Münster in 2007, Director of the Ludwig Forum. The exhibition program and the presentation of the collection are based on annual leitmotifs since 2009 were "Video / Film " at the center, 2010, the program developed in the context of " architecture and space." In this context, the Ludwig Forum has further positioned as an exhibition house and museum with a transdisciplinary profile. " - A new Generation in Architecture West Arch " for the first time contemporary architecture in addition to individual and group exhibitions internationally profiled artists such as Andreas Fogarasi, Ergin Cavusoglu, Althamer or Susan Phlipsz, the Ludwig Forum in 2010 was below the title.

In addition, the Ludwig Forum in 1993 is one of the venues in the context of cross-border pacemaker Festival of Contemporary Dance, which was called by the event manager of the forum, Rick Tavorian to life and has since become a regular fixture in Aachen's cultural landscape.

2011 celebrates the Ludwig Forum for International Art its 20th anniversary. The exhibitions Hyper Real - Art and America around 1970 and never again trouble-free - Aachen avant-garde from 1964 include doing the bow of the history of the house and the collection of current artistic positions and issues.

Exhibitions (selection)

Building

Juelicherstrasse 87-109, the umbrella factory Brauer is a construction of Bachmann Lürken 1928 1977 Monuments directory as:. " 3geschossiger skeleton with rounded corners and flat roof; The facades yellow bricked, veneered pedestal with red clinker bricks. "is entered. 1988 according to designs by Fritz Eller, an Aachen architect, rebuilt.