The Ludwig Gallery at Oberhausen Palace is located next to the popular Imperial Garden with its animal enclosure. The immediate surroundings feature a diverse array of sculptural artworks, inviting visitors to explore. The locations of the sculptures can be viewed here .

1. The internationally active Bielefeld-based artist Heiner Meyer describes his work as Pop Art 2.0. Luxury objects from the consumer world are the main protagonists in Meyer's quotation-rich pictorial compositions. Shoes, which have been an integral part of art since Andy Warhol, repeatedly play a significant role. But handbags or perfume bottles, cars or artistic references also invite recognition and reinterpretation. A pop-art play with the familiar, which often coalesces into new narratives. The Oberhausen work "Red Heels" from 2021 is designed in the style of a paper cutout; the seven high heels wind their way up to a shoe pyramid in a vibrant red hue. The red forms a strong complementary contrast to the trees of the Kaisergarten. The view of the sculpture changes as one walks around it. "Red Heels" has become the new signature piece of the LUDWIGGALERIE.

2. The French artist Jean Ipoustéguy (1920–2006) had a retrospective exhibition at the Municipal Gallery Schloss Oberhausen in 1991. His bronze sculpture " The Dancer" was acquired for the city's art collection in 1992. The sculptor, draftsman, watercolorist, and writer Ipoustéguy was self-taught. He was interested in the connection between abstraction, natural forms, and the human body. This included erotic motifs, which he staged in an expressionistic, figurative style. He participated in both documenta III in 1964 and documenta VI in 1977. The artist explicitly permitted visitors to touch the sensual bronze forms. His sculptures are held in many important international museums.

3. As part of the Emscherkunst project, the artist Tobias Rehberger, born in 1973, designed the pedestrian bridge Slinky Springs To Fame . Inspired by the children's toy Slinky, a coiled rope that can descend stairs, and by the idea of ​​a lasso thrown across the Rhine-Herne Canal, he designed the bridge. The architect and engineer Maik Schlaich developed the 406-meter-long suspension bridge, consisting of 469 coils, which has connected the Kaisergarten park with the grounds of the City Sports Association since 2011. Walking across the bridge on its colorful tartan surface feels like walking on clouds. The light and dynamic bridge sculpture received the International Steel Innovation Prize in 2012.

4 “The movement of searching, exploring, and striving to understand is the essence of his art.” With this statement, Rolf Hegetusch, born in 1948, was introduced on the occasion of the Oberhausen Art Association's presentation of this work to the city of Oberhausen in 1994. Movement seems to be the key word here. Hegetusch erects The Gate to the End of the Path , and it is only through the viewer's journey along this path that the work is completed. The route must be traversed by each individual. Perhaps, symbolically representing the journey of life, it leads from “chaos to stillness.” This was the title of Rolf Hegetusch's exhibition at the time, held at the Municipal Gallery in Oberhausen Castle.

5. In 1985, Heinrich Kasan, a trained painter, graphic artist, sculptor, and miner, created the outdoor artwork "Bomb Crater." Located in close proximity to the Oberhausen Castle Memorial Hall, which keeps the memory of National Socialism alive through its exhibitions, the bomb and crater serve as a physical reminder of the horrors of war and its aftermath. Kasan frequently works with steel and stainless steel. Flowers and herbs repeatedly emerge from the sculpture, reminiscent of grave plants or nature's attempt to reclaim history.

6. As part of the European Capital of Culture project EMSCHERKUNST.2010, the landscape architects Davids I Terfrüchte + Partner – DTP have redesigned and ecologically renovated the Kaisergarten Oberhausen, a 19th-century public park. Inspired by Tobias Rehberger's bridge sculpture Slinky Springs To Fame, new plazas and pathways were created, historical sightlines were restored, and the old Emscher river channels were dredged. The Nuremberg-based sculptor Hubertus Hess was also commissioned to create a sculpture on the site of a former fountain opposite the former orangery, as a playful reminiscence of the Kaisergarten's original purpose. The slight tilt of the KaiserKrone (Emperor's Crown) softens its "royal" solemnity and makes it accessible to visitors.

7. In front of the memorial hall stands the Mourning Woman , an almost four-meter-high stone sculpture by the Cologne sculptor Willy Meller. In 1962, the city of Oberhausen acquired the shrouded, introspective female figure, carved from an 18-ton block of basalt. An inscription reading "In memory of the victims of war, oppression, and expulsion" can be read on a stone slab embedded in the ground. Because the artist Willy Meller was close to National Socialism and, for example, was honored with the title "Professor" on the occasion of Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday, the sculpture, at which wreaths are laid annually, is controversial among the public.

8. The archaic cultures of the Americas inspire the sculptor Luis Guerrero, born in Ecuador in 1938. Stone is not only his preferred material, but also an important carrier of meaning in his later work. From the original, organically appearing forms, the former master student of Joseph Beuys carved the tilted head of the resettler, erected in 1989. The drawn hand transforms the area below into the body. Here, the sculpture's all-around view allows for different angles and perspectives. A sensual, perhaps even tactile, perception is invited. The hollow inside the stone particularly entices young viewers to reach inside, becoming a treasure cave, a view through it, or even the resettler 's inner sanctuary.

9 Elephant and machine? How do they go together? In his sculpture "Juxtaposition" from 1990/91, the Essen-based sculptor Johannes Brus connects precisely these elements. Nature and technology, pachyderm and dominant force on both sides, meet here in an unusual harmony and, at the same time, stark contrast. The concrete sculpture, which has been located in the garden surrounding the LUDWIGGALERIE since the early 1990s, raises questions about this juxtaposition as well as their differences. The material seems to lean more towards the machine, yet it also reflects the gray skin of the large mammals. The animal plays a central role in Johannes Brus's work, representing power and strength.

© of the images: LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen.