"Woman with an Artichoke" by Pablo Picasso (2023 - Succession Pablo Picasso - SACK Korea)

My Art Museum in Seoul is showcasing pieces from the Museum Ludwig in Germany in celebration of the 140th anniversary of Korea’s bilateral relations with Germany. The exhibition “Picasso and the 20th Century Masters” will run through Aug. 27.

Located in Cologne, Museum Ludwig houses a collection of modern art including pop art, abstract and surrealism. The cornerstone of collection was laid in 1976 with a donation of 250 pieces to the city of Cologne by the collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig. The collection includes works by Any Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Picasso.

Visitors take a look at the exhibition “Picasso and the 20th Century Masters” on June 3 at My Art Museum in Seoul. (Park Yuna/The Korea Herald)

According to Museum Ludwig, Peter and Irene Ludwig are closely associated with Picasso’s works. In 1950, Peter Ludwig submitted his dissertation on the artist.

Fascinated by the work “Woman with an Artichoke” by Picasso, the couple focused their passion of collecting on masterpieces and genres studied by the art master. In 1994, the Ludwigs donated 90 works by Picasso to Museum Ludwig followed by 774 more works in 2001. The museum has become home to the third-largest Picasso collection in the world.

"Portrait of My Sister" by Marc Chagall (Marc Chagall / ADAGP, Paris - SACK, Seoul)

The painting “Woman with an Artichoke” by Picasso is part of the presentation at the My Art Museum’s exhibition.

The exhibition also includes works by Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock and Roy Lichtenstein. A total of 71 masterpieces are across six sections – “German Expressionism and Russian Avant-garde,” “Picasso and Environment,” “From Surreal Creation to Abstraction,” “Pop Art and Everyday Reality,” “Minimalist Tendencies” and “German Contemporary Art and New Tendencies.”

German avant-garde artists are introduced at the first section with paintings “Fairy Princess with Fan” by Alexej von Jawlensky and “White Stroke” by Wassily Kandinsky. A group of German Expressionist artists formed The Blue Rider, the art movement advocated by Kandinsky in Munich in 1912, and the Bridge. Both groups aimed to break away from the realist and impressionist painting of the 19th century and developed a colorful expressive and rough brushwork technique.

My Art Museum was established in 2019 in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul. The museum is open throughout the week.