In this unusual presentation, Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen shows an extensive exhibition focusing on the artistic approach to the table as a theme of art, within the framework of the year of the Capital of Culture 2010. Internationally based, highly qualitative pieces from the collection of Peter and Irene Ludwig form the starting point. A panopticon of tables unfolds unusual perspectives. Antique vessels, medieval (altar) tables and still lives from the 17th century are confronted with tendencies from the 20th and 21st centuries. Together, next to and against each other, the positions provide evidence of widely differing approaches. Culturally historic investigations into table culture do not take place but rather a rendering visible of inner contexts, that on the surface at least often present us with highly diverse appearances.

The table as an everyday object serves here for the first time as a medium for the presentation of artistic approaches that sometimes avail us of wide distances and at other times with surprising proximities. While the chair is and has always been a supreme object of design, the table on the other hand tends to assume a more servile, incidental role. And yet it gathers much around it and indeed on top of it. The still life is the only genre that has given the table a leading role. Apart from that it is perhaps in particular the sense of casualness in its presence that serves to emphasise its existence. This is the first time that an exhibition has been dedicated to the theme of the table in a cross-genre fashion, and with the help of masterpieces from the Ludwig Collection embarks on a search for inner structure and the essence of fundamental possibilities.

The array of exponents ranges from decorative, finely worked porcelain tableware from the Ludwig Collection to Renato Guttoso's Funerary Banquet that draws its inspiration from Picasso and his world. Campbell soup cans belong on the table as much as the large antique Skyphos and the Attic eye bowl. Ritual activities (altar tables) are part of the exhibition as are general, everyday aspects. David Hockney allows us a glimpse of his studio, and Albrecht Dürer presents us with the study chamber of Saint Jerome.
Not all tables however are well laid, as displayed by the triad of Joseph de Bray's fasting still life from 1657 acclaiming pickled herring, Picasso's Simple Feast from 1904 and Günter Weseler's Table with Object for Breathing from the 1970's. And the exhibition also eminently demonstrates the harmonious unison of historical cutlery with New Objectivity photography.

'On Tables' is the exhibition of art and as such the primary exhibition of the Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen for the Ruhr Capital of Culture 2010.

The unusual and heterogeneous collection of the former municipal art gallery is to be put on display and presented in a highly individual way for the first time in 20 years. These art treasures reflect collecting history and also the possibilities of collecting in the (industrial) Ruhr Region following WW II.
In a presentation dedicated to confrontation and also to the process of coming together, painting and sculpture, applied art and handicrafts, and highly valuable and eminently curious exponents come face to face. Gerhard Richter's Mutter und Tochter (Mother and Daughter) from 1965 opens the process of dialogue with the Cologne sculpture of St. Ursula (14th century). Ben Williken's Zellentür Nr. 7 (Cell Door No. 7) closes onto Hermann Blumenthal's bronze Huckepack-Artisten (Artists on Piggyback). If Otto Dix's Nächtliche Erscheinung (Nocturnal Apparition) teaches the meaning of fear, then the mask-like Garuda bird of the god Vishnu sourced from Indonesian Bali certainly does the same.
As well as famous names such as Picasso, Beckmann, Miró and HA Schult apparent mainly in the exhibits of applied art, it is the sheer expanse of the collection in terms of eras and types of media that makes it really worthy of a visit.