Kasper König, Influential German Curator and Skulptur Projekte Münster Founder, Dies at 80

Kasper König, the German curator who founded Skulptur Projekte Münster and directed Cologne's Museum Ludwig, has died at age 80. His career began in 1965 as a courier for London's Robert Fraser Gallery, delivering Francis Picabia paintings to New York, where he settled and worked with Andy Warhol at the Factory. While still in his twenties, he curated solo exhibitions for Claes Oldenburg in 1966 and Andy Warhol in 1968 at Stockholm's Moderna Museet, where he served as a New York representative. In 1977, he co-founded the landmark public art exhibition Skulptur Projekte Münster, which occurs every decade in Münster. During the 1980s, he organized the influential Westkunst exhibition in Cologne and co-founded Portikus in Frankfurt am Main. From 2000 to 2012, he led Cologne's Museum Ludwig, overseeing its renovation and approximately 140 exhibitions. ArtReview's 2010 Power 100 profile described him as a 'force of nature' whose fingerprints are 'all over art's recent history.' Born in Mettingen, König's extensive contributions reshaped contemporary art through major institutions and exhibitions across Europe and the United States.