COLOGNE.- As an exhibition organizer, cofounder of Skulptur Projekte Münster, curator of the major exhibitions Westkunst and von hier aus as well as Manifesta in St. Petersburg, Kasper König played an incomparable role in shaping art discourse over the past five decades. He was director of the Museum Ludwig for twelve years (2000–12). In his view, a museum is a public place: “It belongs to everyone and no one.”

König is now donating a selection of works from his private collection to the Museum Ludwig, which is being presented in one room within the museum’s permanent collection. Although he never saw himself as a traditional collector, over the decades, spontaneous purchases, souvenirs, and gifts have grown into a very personal collection. The conceptual meets offbeat humor, and major names meet unknowns. There are traces of a (professional) biography that attest to a great openness, curiosity, and a particular attitude toward art. In close consultation with the museum, König selected some fifty works for his donation. These include important conceptual works that have a special connection to the museum’s collection or complement it particularly well. König has entrusted these works, some of which were personally dedicated to him, to the Museum Ludwig, where they will now become part of the collection, with the potential to form countless new connections.

After all, as König says, “a museum is a storage space with showrooms.” The Museum Ludwig is delighted to receive this unconditional donation (König always refused conditions) and hopes that many others will follow his example.

The donation includes paintings, sculptures, works on paper, multiples, and objects by Paweł Althamer, Richard Artschwager, Bernhard Johannes und Anna Blume, Jonathan Borofsky, Stanley Brouwn, Günter Brus, Hanne Darboven, Jeremy Deller, Maria Eichhorn, Ayşe Erkmen, Katharina Fritsch, Isa Genzken, Jef Geys, Dan Graham, Tue Greenfort, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jenny Holzer und Peter Nadin, Bethan Huws, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Edward Kienholz, Mark Leckey, Richard Long, Allan McCollum, Meuser, John Miller, Henrik Olesen, Tomas Schmit, Robert Smithson, Elaine Sturtevant, Robert Watts, Annette Wehrmann und H. C. Westermann.