Museum Ludwig, Art museum in Altstadt-Nord, Cologne, Germany
Museum Ludwig is an art museum in Altstadt-Nord, Cologne, focusing on modern and contemporary art from the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection holds major holdings in European pop art, Russian avant-garde, and German expressionist painting, alongside a large photography section covering nearly two centuries of work.
The Ludwigs founded the museum in 1976 by donating their private art collection to the city of Cologne. The institution became part of a larger complex near the cathedral and grew into a major center for modern art in Germany.
The institution takes its name from the couple who donated their private holdings to the city, creating a center for modern art. Visitors today encounter works from major movements of the 20th century, from cubist paintings to American pop imagery, making the space a living dialogue with contemporary visual language.
The museum opens Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with extended evening hours until 22:00 on the first Thursday of each month. Exhibition rooms spread across several floors, so a full visit typically takes two to three hours.
The photography collection ranks among the largest of its kind worldwide and displays images from the dawn of photography to the present in a dedicated area. Some of the earliest daguerreotypes date back to the 1840s and document the technical evolution of this medium across nearly two centuries.
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