König was one of those remarkable figures—rare in any field—who was able to keep alighting in new places, with important new projects, decade after decade.

In the 1960s, while in his 20s, he organized exhibitions with Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1977, with Klaus Bussmann, he established the Skulptur Projekte Münster, a showcase for ambitious public artworks that occurs in that German city once a decade. In 1987, he established Portikus, a revered kunsthalle at Frankurt’s Städelschule, where he soon after became rector. And from 2000 to 2012, he was director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, deepening its reputation as a leading venue for venturesome art.