The Marble Palace

The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum

In 1995 the Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum permanent exhibition was opened in the Marble Palace. It was donated by the famous German collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig and displays works by European, Russian and American artists. The exposition of the Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum increases constantly thanks to acquisitions and donations. Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum presents the key patterns by which the actual art of the second half of the 20th century was developing. The history of the museum started in 1995. Inspired by the idea of showing up the interrelations between contemporary Russian and foreign art, Peter and Irene Ludwig donated 33 works of international modern art to the Russian Museum. The collection was supplemented later, gradually coming to represent all main trends of contemporary art: Pop Art, Hyperrealism, Neo-Expressionism, Neoclassicism, Conceptual and Abstract Art.

The basis of the Ludwig Museum collection are the works of the classics of world art process: Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, George Segal, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Georg Baselitz, as well as the works of the masters of Russian topica art: Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Igor Makarevich and Vladimir Yankilevsky.

Over ten years there have been several variants of exposition. It has been reflecting the concept of the contemporary museum, which comprises different views to the art of the 20th century.

The latest project of the Ludwig Museum is focused on the idea of conventionality of contemporary art boundaries. The dynamics of exhibit is shaped by the most representative topics: People in Art: Anthropology of the 20th Century, Society. Socium. Collective Unconscious, and the topics that research the subject of art: Art about Art, Myths of the 20th Century, and the ways of artistic perception: Types of Perception, Object and Viewer, and finally, Icons of the 20th Century.