The Foundation

Am 21. Februar 1978 wurde in Folge vertraglich vereinbart, dass das Ehepaar Ludwig dem österreichischen Staat ungefähr 130 Kunstwerke für fünf Jahre als Leihgabe zur Verfügung stellt. Die Arbeiten wurden einerseits im Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts im Schweizergarten und andererseits im eigens zu diesem Zweck umgebauten barocken Palais Liechtenstein ausgestellt.

Am 19. Januar 1981 erfolgte die Gründung der Österreichischen Ludwig-Stiftung für Kunst und Wissenschaft. Verbunden war diese mit der Einbringung von 128 Kunstwerken aus der Sammlung Ludwig; im Gegenzug dazu verpflichtete sich die Republik Österreich für einen Zeitraum von fünfzehn Jahren zu jährlichen finanziellen Zuwendungen an die Österreichische Ludwig-Stiftung. Zudem erhielt die Stiftung ungefähr zwanzig Kunstwerke von einem anonymen Spender sowie Schenkungen von verschiedenen in Österreich lebenden Künstler:innen.

Anlässlich des zehnjährigen Jubiläums der Österreichischen Ludwig-Stiftung gingen 1991 weitere 100 Kunstwerke des Ehepaars Ludwig in deren Besitz über und die Republik Österreich verlängerte ihre Verpflichtung zu jährlichen finanziellen Zuwendungen an die Österreichische Ludwig-Stiftung um weitere fünfzehn Jahre bis zum Jahre 2010. Das Palais Liechtenstein und das Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden umbenannt in Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien.

Mit der Errichtung eines Museumsneubaus im Museumsquartier 2001 ist nun etwa die Hälfte der Sammlungsbestände als Dauerleihgaben im mumok vereint. Ein substantieller Teil der Dauerleihgaben befindet sich außerdem in der Albertina, Wien, sowie weitere Bestände in Wien im MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, in der Österreichischen Galerie Belvedere und der Universität für Angewandte Kunst sowie in Sammlungen der Bundesländer im Kunsthaus Bregenz, der Neuen Galerie Graz, dem Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, dem Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz und dem Museum der Moderne Salzburg.

From 1981 to Today: A Contemporary Art Collection

When the Austrian Ludwig Foundation was established in 1981 with a particular focus on international contemporary art, the artistic practices of the 1960s and 1970s were seen as most current developments and formed the core of the collection. The works donated by the Ludwigs from these two decades are characterized by a focus on more traditional artistic media such as painting, printmaking, and sculpture; meanwhile, from the late 1960s on, artists were beginning to claim the body as material for performance pieces, and were increasingly working with film, video, and other new technologies.

From the very start, new acquisitions supplemented the existing collection of works from the 1960s and 1970s in order to account for the huge breadth of artistic developments during the period. For example, 1983 saw the purchase of the estate of the Viennese Actionist Rudolf Schwarzkogler—mainly consisting of photographic documentation of his “Actions.” In the 1990s, a set of Dieter Roth’s works on paper was acquired, as well as a more international collection of Fluxus works featuring pieces by George Brecht, Robert Filliou, Yoko Ono, and others. The beginning of that decade also saw the acquisition of photographic documentation and objects related to Carolee Schneemann’s body performances, paving the way for the collection to later be expanded to include works by women artists from the 1960s and 1970s. Thus, in the 2010s, the Pop Art holdings were bolstered by the acquisition of works by Sine Hansen and Jann Haworth; Rosemarie Castoro’s large-scale sculptures expanded the collection’s Minimal art holdings; and the addition of works by Renate Bertlmann and Birgit Jürgenssen allowed for developments in Austria’s feminist art to be juxtaposed with the collection’s holdings related to Viennese Actionism. The collection’s initial holdings from Eastern and Central Europe were bolstered by regime-critical works from the 1960s to 1980s by artists such as Július Koller and Sanja Iveković.

Over the decades, acquisitions have also always made reference to significant developments in contemporary art: from Günther Förg and Albert Oehlen in the 1980s to Mike Kelley and Stephen Prina in the 1990s, and to Stan Douglas, Omer Fast, and William Kentridge in the 2000s. The Austrian Ludwig Foundation’s collection now includes various Post-Conceptual practices as well as an increasing amount of photography and moving image works. In designating pieces for potential acquisition, special attention is paid to expanding the collection to include works of contemporary art from non-Western contexts and to incorporating works by contemporary female and queer artists—in particular works that reflect on gender. It is with this outlook to the future that works by artists including Leilah Babirye, Anna Boghiguian, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Sonia Gomes, and Moffat Takadiwa joined the collection in the 2010s and 2020s.

Peter Ludwig was the son of lawyer Fritz Ludwig and his wife Helene, née Klöckner, the family who owned the Klöckner Group.

He graduated from the classical Kaiserin-Augusta grammar school in Koblenz in 1943. From 1943 to 45 he did his military service and was taken prisoner of war. From 1945 he studied law in Bonn. In 1946 he changed to the newly-founded Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and studied history of art, archaeology, pre-history and ancient history, and philosophy. Start of his collecting activities. In 1950 he attained his PhD with a doctoral thesis entitled “Das Menschenbild Picassos als Ausdruck eines generationsmäßig bedingten Lebensgefühls” [Picasso's picture of mankind as an expression of a generation-based attitude towards life].

He married Irene Monheim in 1951. From 1952 he worked in the family-owned company Leonard Monheim Schokoladenfabrik (including as managing shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board), as well as in other German groups of companies. In 1986 he founded Ludwig Schokolade GmbH.

From 1956 he was a member of the bodies of various museums and cultural institutions: Cologne: Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Schnütgen-Museum, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum / Dusseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Bonn: Deutsch-Französische Kulturstiftung / New York: Museum of Modern Art. Publisher of the Aachener Kunstblätter.

International honours and awards (selection):
1972: Honorary Professor for Contemporary Art at Cologne University, 1975: Golden Ring of the City of Aachen, 1976: Great Cross of Merit of the Distinguished Service Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1977: “Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur”, 1981: Great Golden Cross of Merit with Star of the Republic of Austria, 1989: Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna.

Irene Maria Therese Ludwig, née Monheim, was the daughter of Aachen-based entrepreneur Franz Monheim and his wife Olga Ella and the great-granddaughter of Leonard Monheim, founder of the Trumpf Chocolate Factory.

She graduated from grammar school in Aachen in 1946. She studied history of art, archaeology, pre-history and ancient history at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1947 to 1950. Her interest in arts and culture had already begun to develop during her childhood. She began collecting while she was studying in Mainz.

She married Peter Ludwig in 1951. From 1957 she collaborated with museums in Cologne and Aachen. She was a member of various bodies of museums.

International honours and awards (selection):
1978: awarded the academic title of Professor by the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, 1992: Great Cross of Merit of the Distinguished Service Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1994: Honorary Citizen of the City of Aachen, 1995: “Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur” and Honorary Citizen of the City of Cologne (as the first woman), 1996 Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria, 1998: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Distinguished Service Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2007: Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder-strap of the Distinguished Service Order of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Numerous honorary doctorates: Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia/Bulgaria (1985); Eötvös University Budapest/Hungary (1987); University of Havana/Cuba (1993) and University of Vermont, Burlington/ USA (1999).