Outdoor Sculpture. His work is extremely varied, ranging as it does from video, drawing, collage, poster design, object, sculpture and furniture to installation and environment. To Franz West, art is a thoroughly dynamic and multi-functional field open to all sides, and he likes to blur the distinctions between art-historical categories.
Franz West (b. 1947) has been a prominent presence in the international
art world since the mid-1980s. He is widely regarded as one of the most
individual sculptural artists of his generation and is among the most
celebrated contemporary artists.
His work is extremely varied, ranging as it does from video, drawing,
collage, poster design, object, sculpture and furniture to installation and
environment. To Franz West, art is a thoroughly dynamic and
multi-functional field open to all sides, and he likes to blur the distinctions
between art-historical categories.
Most of Franz West's works are intended to be actively experienced with
the body. Already his "Passstücke" (Fitting Pieces) of the late 1970s were
designed for the bodily involvement of the viewer. These amorphous
sculptures, with their rough, crusty surfaces, are intended to be put on by
the viewer, who thus enters into a discourse with the oddly shaped
objects. This way, the usually passive viewer is temporarily turned into an
active participant. Many such actions were documented by Franz West in
videos and photos.
In the past fifteen years, West has won wide acclaim with his
environments of furniture/sculpture. They are places for the viewer to take
a rest, to sit or even lie down in, extending the interactive relationship
between work and viewer. His chairs and couches, made of welded steel
with slipcovers of fabric or carpet, are a logical continuation of the
"Passstücke". West has created striking resting places for sites like the
rooftop of the Dia Center for the Arts in New York, the open-air cinema at
the documenta IX and the great hall of the documenta X. These furniture
sculptures are a way for West to address the ambivalent position of his
works between autonomous work of art and object of utility.
In the late 1990s, Franz West turned to working on a larger scale,
producing sculptural works for an outdoor setting.
This decision forced the artist to abandon materials that are easy to
handle, like plaster, papier-mâché and polyester, and turn to one that is
more weatherproof, aluminium. The outdoor sculptures and collages on
view at the Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber were made over the
past year specifically for this exhibition. The brightly painted aluminium
sculptures, called "Sitzwuste" (Sitting Heaps), were originally designed
for the Ambras Castle Park near Innsbruck and have now found their way
into the gallery as indoor sculptures. Franz West's conception of
sculpture truly realises Umberto Eco's theory of the "open work" in that
the sculptures are only ever completed in the viewer's head. The
sculptures will be presented together with collages and poster designs
for the exhibition.
Franz West lives and works in Vienna, Austria. His work has been shown
in many international exhibitions of contemporary art, such as Skulptur.
Projekte in Münster in 1997, the documenta X in Kassel in 1997 and the
1997 Biennale of Venice, as well as in numerous exhibitions in
distinguished museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York
in 1997, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1998 and the
Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna, and the Deichtorhallen,
Hamburg, in 2001.
Gallery hours: Tue-Fri 12-6 pm, Sat 11 am-4 pm
Forthcoming exhibition: Sue Williams, 24 August to 13 October 2002
Art '33 Basel: 12 to 17 June 2002, Hall 2.1 Booth S1
Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber Limmatstrasse 270 CH-8005 Zurich
Hours: tue-fri 12am - 6pm sat 11am - 4pm