The Museum Ludwig holds nine photographs from David Wojnarowicz’s Arthur Rimbaud in New York, series of gelatin silver prints shot in 1978-79.
Museum Ludwig curators write: “Rimbaud flaunted the poetic and ethical rules of the nineteenth century. His affair with the poet Paul Verlaine beginning in 1871 was a major scandal in Paris…In his photo series the artist David Wojnarowicz takes on the role of Verlaine, and photographs his lover, Brian Buttrick, wearing a Rimbaud mask in shabby New York surrounding. Nevertheless this born-again Rimbaud is hardly as lonely as he appears. Whether he poses, rides the subway, or shoots himself—he always does it for his friend and adored viewer.”
The Museum Ludwig is home to one of the most important collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art in the world. And, unlike royal collections, it owes its existence to the extraordinary dedication of private citizens. The cornerstone for the founding of the museum was laid in 1976 with a donation of 350 works of modern art to the city of Cologne by the collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig.
Heinrich-Böll-Platz 1, 50667 Köln
