COLOGNE.- Kasper König (1943 - 2024) was one of the most important internationally networked exhibition organizers; he was co-founder of Skulptur Projekte Münster, curator of the major exhibitions Westkunst and von hier aus as well as Manifesta in St. Petersburg. He has shaped the art discourse of the last five decades like no other. Kasper König was Director of the Museum Ludwig from 2000 to 2012. "Guided by the will to once again make the Museum Ludwig a place of art of international standing, carried by the idea of once again raising and cultivating the treasures of the museum's collection and bringing them into the present..." König formulated in the preamble to his contract with the City of Cologne for the directorship of the Museum Ludwig.

In 2000, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum moved out of the building designed by Peter Busmann and Godfrid Haberer between the cathedral, the Rhine and the main railway station and into the new building designed by Oswald Matthias Ungers in Cologne's old town. Kasper König then had the museum carefully renovated to revive the original character of the architecture and opened it in 2001 with the "Museum of Our Wishes", an exhibition of proposals to expand the collection, which was linked to an invitation to patrons and donors to donate them to the museum. After around 140 exhibitions during his tenure, Kasper König took stock in 2012 with the presentation "One wish always remains". This show of around 80 works from the 2,000 or so that came to the museum during König's directorship highlighted the central question of his curatorial museum work, namely how changing exhibitions can serve as a targeted addition to the collection and, conversely, how new exhibitions can be initiated from the collection. Last year, Kasper König donated a selection of around 50 works from his private collection to the Museum Ludwig, including important works, often of conceptual art, which are illuminatingly related to the museum collection or complement it particularly well. This testifies to his enduring attachment to the Museum Ludwig and its collection.

Kasper König has now died in Berlin at the age of 80.

"Kasper König was one of the greats of the art world. With his knowledge, his judgment and his incorruptibility, he raised the Museum Ludwig to a world-class level again. I owe him a great deal," says Yilmaz Dziewior, Director of the Museum Ludwig. The Museum Ludwig team mourns the loss of a generous, independent, humorous, energetic person who always carried us away with his enthusiasm for art. We will never forget the encounters and conversations with Kasper König and his postcards. Our thoughts are with his family.