When the Ludwig Museum was founded in the early 1990s, only eight of the 165 works in the international collection brought to Hungary by Peter and Irene Ludwig were by female artists, which represented less than five per cent of the total. This roughly corresponded to the figure on the Guerrilla Girls’ infamous 1989 poster, ‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’: ‘Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.’ By contrast, in 2024, when the museum’s collection contains more than a thousand works, almost a third of them are by women.
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of its foundation, the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art now presents a selection of works by women artists, with the first part of the show focusing on women’s roles and their (self-)representation in art, while the second section explores the genres and themes chosen by women, as well as their artistic achievements and accomplishments.

The exhibition is on view between 18 October and 12 January.