In 1994, the famous German collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig presented the Russian Museum with a collection of works by artists of the second half of the twentieth century. This gift formed a special section of the permanent exhibition ‘The Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum’, which opened to the public on 10 March 1995 in the halls of the Marble Palace. The permanent exposition of the ‘Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum’ is the only institution in Russia where one can see classical works of international contemporary art from the post-war period to the beginning of the 21st century. The vast and varied collection formed by the Ludwig couple is now represented in many museums and foundations around the world that bear their names. It includes fine examples of antiquity, the Middle Ages, Baroque and Rococo, pre-Columbian art from America, Africa, China and India. However, the Ludwigs’ fame is primarily due to their interest in collecting avant-garde art and promoting contemporary art. In this endeavour, the couple, who had rare foresight, impeccable taste, an accurate sense of historical context and were not afraid to take risks, were almost pioneers. The Ludwigs were able to assess an artist’s creative prospects long before he or she was universally recognised.

The composition of the gift was determined by the collectors themselves together with representatives of the Russian Museum. A representative corpus of personalities, including the most significant figures, the biggest names, such as Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Jörg Immendorf, Jonathan Borofsky, Jeff Koons, Ilya Kabakov and others. The collection for the Russian Museum reflects the main artistic trends and strategies, using the best examples to introduce the viewer to Pop Art (‘Ruins’ by Roy Lichtenstein, ‘Portrait of P. Ludwig’ by Andy Warhol, ‘Banana Ice Cream Tasting’ by Claes Oldenburg, etc.) and Hyperrealism (‘Ruins’ by Roy Lichtenstein, ‘Portrait of P. Ludwig’ by Andy Warhol, ‘Banana Ice Cream Tasting’ by Claes Oldenburg, etc.). ) and hyperrealism (‘Diner’ by Ralph Goings), German neo-expressionism (‘Bottle and Eagle’ by Georg Baselitz, ‘Style: Eurydice’ by Markus Lüpertz, ‘Chairs’ by Jörg Immendorf, ‘Germany’s Big Iron Fist’ by Anselm Kiefer) and neoclassicism (‘Madonna’ by Claudio Bravo), conceptual art (‘Garden’ by Ilya Kabakov).

The collection demonstrates the emergence of new types and genres, methods and technologies in contemporary art: ‘Man in Space Y 2589394’ Jonathan Borofsky’s ‘Man in Space Y89394’ is a painting painted on canvas with an unconventional form, A. R. Penk’s ‘Snow Maiden’ is a transforming soft sculpture, Tom Wesselman’s ‘Monica’ is a monumental drawing made of steel using a laser, Igor Makarevich’s ‘Ilya’s Closet’ and Vladimir Yankilevsky’s ‘Triptych No. 14. In memory of his father’ by Vladimir Yankilevsky are assemblages combining real household items (so-called “found objects”) and paintings.

‘Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum’ captures the main preferences of Ludwig the collector. First of all, Ludwig began collecting with Picasso’s works, and one of them was presented by him to the Russian Museum. Two powerful ‘nodes’ of Ludwig’s collecting activity are most vividly and fully represented in the current exhibition. Firstly, American Pop Art, the scale of which Ludwig understood earlier and better than anyone else. Pop Art, the most radical art movement of the time, is where his collection of contemporary art began. In 1967, he bought ‘Landscape No. 2’ Tom Wesselmann (1964), and in 1969 he opened the exhibition ‘Art of the 1960s’ in Cologne. Of Ludwig’s preferences, the second most important is German Neo-Expressionism, which brought painting back to relevance in the 1980s, as well as the keenly debated phenomenon of the ‘German’ in German art.

The quality and vitality of the donated collection is evidenced by the constant participation of works from the Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum in major international projects. In 2014, the Russian Museum organised a large-scale display of the collection in Brazil: the exhibition at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centre in Rio de Janeiro became the second most visited exhibition in the world: 530,088 people saw it over two months, and more than one million people visited the exhibition in three cities across the country.

Under the terms of the agreement with the Ludwig couple, the collection of the Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum is not a closed whole and continues to grow. New works arrive to the collection in two main ways: gifts from foreign and domestic artists (or their heirs) participating in the intensively developing exhibition programme of the Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum, and acquisitions, mainly funded by the Ludwig Foundation. Today the collection includes works by 150 authors.

During the existence of the Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum, the audience has been able to get acquainted with several variants of the exposition. Today the emphasis is on the collection as such and the freedom of the viewer’s perception, which is not constrained by curatorial concepts. Therefore, the focus of the public’s attention is on the main names and works. In one of the halls, the display will change periodically, which will give the opportunity to show the entire collection in different combinations.