Coinciding with Art Cologne 2013, Museum Ludwig in Cologne (Germany) opened two exhibitions: A solo show of Phil Collins, and a retrospective of Andrea Fraser. The Los Angeles-based artist Andrea Fraser (b. 1965; Billings, Montana) received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize for 2013, awarded annually by the Museum Ludwig’s Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst. The prize honors contemporary artists whose oeuvre is internationally recognized. Andrea Fraser is seen to have made a vital contribution to current issues in contemporary art. Fraser has produced a wide-ranging ouvre of performances, videos and texts.
After Fraser’s last survey exhibition in Europe in 2003 at the Hamburger Kunstverein, this large presentation at the Museum Ludwig aims to investigate the artist’s new critical direction. The show presents Fraser’s early works, along with her new alignment in recent works. Over and beyond this, the exhibition focuses on Andrea Fraser as a performance artist. She will give the first European performance of her latest full-length piece, Men on the Line, which she premiered in 2012 in Los Angeles. Two slightly older performances have also been staged during the opening by Fraser herself, while May I Help You from 1991 will be performed for the visitors during the exhibition by specially instructed actors.
Andrea Fraser: Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2013 / Retrospective at Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Opening reception and award ceremony, April 20, 2013.
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With the Wolfgang Hahn Prize COLOGNE, the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst pays tribute to the work of contemporary artists and purchases a work for Museum Ludwig. The acquisition prize is in memory of Wolfgang Hahn (1924 – 1987), head conservator at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum / Museum Ludwig and a far-sighted Cologne collector. An ongoing line of development in the artist’s creative output and international recognition within professional circles are two of the requirements for the prize, along with the stipulation that the artist’s oeuvre is not yet adequately represented in Museum Ludwig but important for the continuance of the collection. The budget for the prize amounts to a maximum of 100,000 euros per annum. Since 1994, the Wolfgang Hahn Prize COLOGNE has been awarded to: James Lee Byars (1994), Lawrence Weiner (1995), Günther Förg (1996), Cindy Sherman (1997), Franz West (1998), Pipilotti Rist (1999), Hubert Kiecol (2000), Raymond Pettibon (2001), Isa Genzken (2002), Niele Toroni (2003), Rosemarie Trockel (2004), Richard Artschwager (2005), Mike Kelley (2006), Peter Doig (2008), Christopher Wool (2009), and Fischli/Weiss (2010).