Wiener Zentralfriedhof - Gruppe 33G - Grabstelle von Franz West

Museumabteiberggarten franz west flause 1998 aluminium

Franz West (16 February 1947 – 25 July 2012) was an Austrian artist. He is best known for his unconventional objects and sculptures, installations and furniture work which often require an involvement of the audience.

Early life and education

West was born on 16 February 1947 in Vienna. His father was a coal dealer, his mother a dentist who took her son with her on art-viewing trips to Italy.

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position at the Times. Education and early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawre ...

(July 26, 2012)
Franz West Is Dead at 65; Creator of an Art Universe
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. West did not begin to study art seriously until he was 26,Christopher Knight (March 31, 2009)
Review: Franz West at LACMA
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. when, between 1977 and 1983, he studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

with Bruno Gironcoli.

Work

West began making drawings around 1970 before moving on to painted collages incorporating magazine images that showed the influence of Pop Art. His art practice started as a reaction to the

Viennese Actionism Viennese Actionism was a short-lived art movement in the late 20th-century that spanned the 1960s into the 1970s. It is regarded as part of the independent efforts made during the 1960s to develop the issues of performance art, Fluxus, happening, a ...

movement has been exhibited in museums and galleries for more than three decades. Over the last 20 years he had a regular presence in big expositions like

Documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...

and the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

.Johnson, Ken
"Sculpture That Asks You too Set a Spell"
''New York Times.com / Art & Design / Art Review'', 19 December 2008 West's artwork is typically made out of

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include some natura ...

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and other, ordinary materials. He started to produce paintings, but then turned to collages, sculptures, portable sculptures called "Adaptives" or "Fitting Pieces",

environments Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

and furniture – "welded metal chairs and divans, some minimally padded and upholstered in raw linen." For his early sculptures, West often covered ordinary objects—bottles, machine parts, pieces of furniture and other, unidentifiable things—with gauze and plaster, producing "lumpy, grungy, dirty-white objects". In the late 1990s, West turned to large-scale lacquered aluminum pieces, the first (and several after) inspired by the forms of Viennese sausages, as well as the shapes of the Adaptives. With their monochrome colors and irregular patchwork surfaces, these works were also meant for sitting and lying.
The Baltimore Museum of Art with help from former Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Darsie Alexander, hosted the very first "comprehensive survey" to ever been done in the U.S. of Franz West's artwork which contained his latest artwork designed specifically for the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...

, ''The Ego and the Id'' – which "consists of two configurations of rumpled, ribbon-like loops rising some 20 feet high. One is bright pink, the other neatly painted in blocks of green, yellow, blue and orange. Both have round stools projecting from the lower ends of the loops." For the season 2009/2010 in the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

Franz West designed a large scale picture (176 sqm) as part of the exhibition series "Safety Curtain", conceived by

museum in progress museum in progress is a private art association based in Vienna. The non-profit art initiative was created in 1990 by Kathrin Messner and Josef Ortner († 2009) with the aim to develop new presentation forms for contemporary art. The projects ...

."Safety Curtain 2009/2010"

, Vienna. Throughout his career, West engaged in collaborations with other artists, such as conceptual Artist

Bernhard Cella Bernhard Cella (born 1969 in Salzburg) is an Austrian artist and curator. Academic career Cella studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Erich Wonder, the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz with Herbert Lachmayer and the Hoc ...

, conceptual artist

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

, musician Fred Jellinek, furniture maker Mathis Esterhazy, and the artist Tamuna Sirbiladze (West's widow). For another exhibition in 2012, West collaborated with fellow artist Anselm Reyle on a series of furniture sculptures.

Adaptives

Around 1980 West started to create "plaster objects, usually a few feet long, meant to be placed over the face, worn around the waist or held in the crook of the neck. Although they suggest masks and props for the commedia dell'arte, their shapes are usually ambiguous: no matter how figurative and sexual Mr. West's objects may be, they remain abstract. The pieces can be worn on the street or carried like a partner in an enraptured solipsistic dance. They leave the wearer looking both protected and trapped." His friend Reinhard Priessnitz called these "Passstücke", which was rendered into English as "Fitting pieces"; but West came to prefer another translation, "Adaptives".

Exhibitions

*1987

Wiener Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Hoff ...

, Vienna *1988

Kunsthalle Bern The Kunsthalle Bern is a ''Kunsthalle'' (art exposition hall) on the Helvetiaplatz in Bern, Switzerland. It was built in 1917–1918 by the Kunsthalle Bern Association and opened on October 5, 1918. Since then, it has been the site of numerous ex ...

, Bern *1988

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...

, Vienna *1988 P.S.1, New York *1990

, Austrian Pavilion, Venice *1991

Villa Arson The Villa Arson, also referred to as the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts à la Villa Arson (National School of Fine Arts at the Villa Arson), is a French art museum, elite school and research institution for contemporary art, located in Nic ...

, Nice *1994 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles *1996 Museum moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 20er Haus, Vienna *1997 Fundaçao de Serralves, Porto *1997

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York *1998 Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum, Antwerpen *2000 Museum für Neue Kunst - ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe *2000 Renaissance Society, Chicago *2001 Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna *2001

Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are notable examples of industrial architecture from the transitional period ...

, Hamburg *2002 Musée d'Art Contemporain (MAC), Marseille *2002/03

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ...

, North Adams, MA *2003

Kunsthaus Bregenz The Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB) presents temporary exhibitions of international contemporary art in Bregenz, Vorarlberg (Austria). History Commissioned by the State of Vorarlberg and designed by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the Kunsthaus Br ...

, Bregenz *2003

Whitechapel Art Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

, London *2007 Werkstadt Graz, Graz *2008 Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna *2008

, Baltimore *2009

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Los Angeles *2009

Fondation Beyeler The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler, with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes ...

, Basel *2009/10

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lic ...

, Cologne *2010 Museo MADRE, Neapel *2010/11

Kunsthaus Graz The Kunsthaus Graz, Grazer Kunsthaus, or Graz Art Museum was built as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2003 and has since become an architectural landmark in Graz, Austria. Its exhibition program specializes in contemporary ...

, Graz *2013

MUMOK Mumok (from the full name ; "Museum of modern art, Ludwig Foundation, Vienna") is a museum in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria. The museum has a collection of 10,000 modern and contemporary art works, including major works from Andy Warh ...

, Vienna *2013

Inverleith House Inverleith House is a historic house, now within the Royal Botanic Garden, in the suburb of Inverleith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Inverleith House was designed in 1773 by David Henderson and built for James Rocheid in 1774. In about 182 ...

, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh *2013 MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main *2014

Williams College Museum of Art The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is a college-affiliated art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is located on the Williams College campus, close to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Clark Art Institu ...

, Williamstown, USA *2014

The Hepworth Wakefield The Hepworth Wakefield is an art museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, which opened on 21 May 2011. The gallery is situated on the south side of the River Calder and takes its name from artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born ...

, Wakefield *2016

21er Haus Belvedere 21, formerly 21er Haus or Einundzwanziger Haus (), is a modernist style steel and glass building designed by Austrian architect Karl Schwanzer (1918–1975). Originally constructed as the Austrian pavilion or temporary showroom for the ...

, Vienna *2017 Viva Arte Viva, The 57th

, Venice, Italy *2018/19

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Paris, and

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, London

Awards

*1986: Otto Mauer Prize, Vienna *1988: City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts *1993: Sculpture Award at the

Generali Foundation The Generali Foundation was established in 1988 by the Generali Group Austria as a private and non-profit-making art association for the promotion of contemporary art. Situated in Vienna, Austria, it is one of the important museums specialised in ...

*1998: Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis,

, Cologne *2011:

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

for Lifetime Achievement,

*2011:

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

Personal life

West was married to the Georgian artist Tamuna Sirbiladze, with whom he had two children.

Art market

West was represented by

Gagosian Gallery The Gagosian Gallery is a modern and contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As of 2024, Gagosian employs 300 people at 19 exhibiti ...

, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, and

Galerie Eva Presenhuber Galerie Eva Presenhuber is a contemporary art gallery, owned by Eva Presenhuber, with locations in Zurich, Switzerland (since 2003) and Vienna (since 2022). History Eva Presenhuber founded Galerie Eva Presenhuber in October 2003 in Zurich, with an ...

, Zürich, until his death in 2012. Previously,

David Zwirner David Zwirner (born October 23, 1964) is a German art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Paris. His gallery represents over seventy artists. Early life and education Zwirner wa ...

had represented West in the US until 2001.Rachel Corbett (March 7, 2016)
Long battle rages over Franz West’s estate
''

The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...

''. At

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art, contemporary art festival, art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine ''Frieze (magazine), Frieze'', the fair has since expan ...

in 2011, West curated the Gagosian Gallery's booth. A portrait of West made by

Rudolf Stingel Rudolf Stingel (born 1956) is an artist based in New York City. Stingel was born in Merano, Italy. His work engages the audience in dialogue about their perception of art and uses conceptual painting and installations to explore the process of ...

sold for a price of more than $500,000.Scott Reyburn (October 13, 2011)
Elle Macpherson Browses Frieze, $1.4 Million Rauch Leads Sales
''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

''. West's estate continues to be represented by Gagosian Gallery. The non-profit Franz West Archive was established by West, Eva Badura-Triska and others in 1997. In 2012, just days before he died, West signed paperwork authorising the formation of the Franz West Private Foundation which also operated the Franz West Werknutzungs GmbH; after a five-year battle over the artist's estate, however, the Regional Court for Civil Law of Vienna concluded in 2017 that the foundation was created without a proper contract.Rachel Corbett (June 27, 2017)
Austrian court rules in favour of Franz West’s family in legal battle over estate
''

''. The archive had previously sued the private foundation, as well as Gagosian Gallery and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, for selling the artist's furniture and photographs, claiming it owns the sole license for those works. In 2016, the archive sought to merge with the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok).

Literature

* Franz West,

Benedikt Ledebur Benedikt Ledebur is a poet, essayist and critic based in Vienna, Austria. Life and work Ledebur was editor of two issues of ''Der Ficker'' – a homage to the bimonthly of – in 2005 and 2006. They were published on the occasion of exhibi ...

: ''Extroversion ‒ a Talk'',Extroversion
Schlebrügge.Editor, Vienna 2011. Schlebrügge.Editor, Vienna 2011. * Kaspar König (ed.): ''Franz West ‒ Autotheater''. DuMont, Cologne 2009. * Kristine Bell (ed.): ''Franz West ‒ Early work'', October 30, 2004 - January 8, 2005. Zwirner & Wirth, New York 2004. * Franz West: ''Franz West ‒ Displacement and Condensation''. Gagosian Gallery, London 2006. * Klaus Thoman (ed.): ''Franz West ‒ Die Aluskulptur''. Galerie Elisabeth und Klaus Thoman - Skulptur im Schlosspark Ambras, Innsbruck 2000. * Robert Fleck,

Bice Curiger Beatrice "Bice" Curiger (born 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a Swiss art historian, curator, critic and publisher who has been the Artistic Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles since 2013. In 2011 she became only the third woman to cu ...

, Neal Benezra, ''Franz West''.

Phaidon Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional of ...

, London, 1999.

References

External links

Franz West at David Zwirner

Franz West at Gagosian Gallery

The main works of Franz West

Franz West – Exhibitions listed at kunstaspekte
{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Franz Artists from Vienna 1947 births 2012 deaths Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Austrian abstract sculptors 20th-century Austrian sculptors 21st-century Austrian sculptors Austrian male sculptors Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Austrian contemporary artists