Name: Press Release
Start: 2023-10-26
End: 2023-12-16
Location: David Zwirner

Franz West in his studio, Vienna, 1995

Emerging in the early 1970s, Franz West developed a unique aesthetic that engaged equally high and low reference points and privileged social interaction as an intrinsic component of his work.

This exhibition in Los Angeles follows two major institutional presentations of West’s work in the city: the survey exhibition To Build A House You Start With the Roof, on view at LACMA in 2009, and his first American site-specific museum installation, Test, presented on the roof of MOCA in 1994.

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Installation view, Franz West: To Build a House You Start with the Roof: Work, 1972–2008, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2009. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

“West’s expressive take on things is jaundiced and mature, snarky but sophisticated—Benny Hill with brains. And … like an adolescent prankster with an old soul, its tone deepens and becomes more resonant over the next three decades, even though the die was cast right from the start.”

—Christopher Knight, The Los Angeles Times, 2009

Franz West

Untitled, 1972

Watercolor, marker, and pencil on paper

5 3/8 x 8 1/8 inches (13.7 x 20.6 cm)
Framed: 9 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches (25.1 x 31.1 cm)

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Franz West

Untitled, 1972

Watercolor and pencil on paper

5 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches (14.9 x 21 cm)
Framed: 9 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches (25.1 x 31.1 cm)

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While he was known primarily as a sculptor, West’s body of work incorporated drawing, collage, video, and installation, using papier-mâché, furniture, cardboard, plaster, found imagery, and other diverse materials. Throughout his career, he made collages that shared the irreverent aesthetic and humor of his sculptures, and that frequently employed found imagery.

Franz West

Untitled, 1996

Papier-mâché, paint, and paper on plywood

36 3/4 x 27 inches (93.3 x 68.6 cm)

Private Collection

Related to his ongoing practice of making collages that shared the irreverent aesthetic and humor of his sculptures, West often created unique posters for most of his solo exhibitions and some group shows, such as the present work which was made on the occasion of the exhibition Franz West at David Zwirner, New York in 1996.

Franz West, Untitled, 1996 (detail)

“These collages constitute a key element of his work from the seventies through to the present. A conscious ‘aesthetic of ugliness’ pervades West’s work, launching a biting critique of the down-side of postmodern life in consumer society, without ever pandering to the supposedly glamorous surface of this consumer world.”

—Robert Fleck, art critic and curator

Installation view, Franz West, David Zwirner, Los Angeles, 2023

Franz West

Passstück (Adaptive), c. 1979

Papier-mâché, plaster, and dispersion

14 1/8 x 19 3/4 x 11 3/8 inches (36 x 50 x 29 cm)

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In the mid-1970s, West began creating his so-called Passstücke (Adaptives). These abstract sculptural forms are intended to be handled by the viewer in a manner of his or her choosing, thereby “adapting” the works to the viewer’s physical being and context.

Installation view, Franz West, Austrian Pavilion, 44th Venice Biennale, 1990

Many of the forms are reminiscent of everyday objects, allowing the viewer to make loose associations while still handling the objects in an autonomous and unconditioned way.

Franz West

BI 11, 1990

Cast aluminum and plaster

15 x 33 x 8 1/2 inches (38.1 x 83.8 x 21.6 cm)

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From the very beginning, West encouraged people to handle the Passstücke in different surroundings, documenting this in photographs and, from the early 1980s, in film and video. Some of these images became material for his collages.

“By and large the development of Franz West’s work can be seen as a form of interplay between the production of sculptures and events and the manipulation of reproduction systems through which presence is mediated.”

—Ulrich Loock, former director, Kunsthalle Bern

Franz West

Passstücke (mit Video mit Verwendungstipps) (Adaptives [with video with usage tips]), 1996

Papier-mâché, plaster, metal, and paint in two (2) parts with accompanying video and monitor on wooden board

Overall dimensions variable
Left Passstück: 27 x 21 x 17 inches (68.6 x 53.3 x 43.2 cm)
Right Passstück: 29 x 16 1/2 x 10 inches (73.7 x 41.9 x 25.4 cm)
Board: 1 x 87 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (2.5 x 222.3 x 59.7 cm)

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The merging of art and life was a primary principle behind the Adaptives, out of which West's earliest furniture pieces were developed. He conceived of furniture as both sculpture and a means for social experience, and by the late 1980s, furniture had become an important part of his aesthetic output that allowed him not only to subvert traditional exhibition models, but also to create a space for visitors to rest and reflect on the artwork and their experience of it.

Franz West

Diwan (Divan), 1991/2014

Steel, foam, rubber, and linen

39 3/8 x 90 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches (100 x 230 x 85 cm)

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Franz West, Vienna, 2003. Photo by Albrecht Fuchs

West designed a number of chairs, tables, and benches that were covered with different fabrics (including printed African textiles, nylon webbing, and raw linen) or painted in different hues, which were often used to furnish lounges, discussion forums, cafés, and other spaces within and outside of his own exhibitions. He created editions of chairs, divans, sofas, poufs, bookcases, and coat hangers, among others, making his work accessible to a broader audience for use in daily life.

Franz West

Künstlerstuhl (Artist's Chair), 2006/2022

Stainless steel, epoxy resin, and acrylic lacquer

34 5/8 x 20 1/8 x 21 1/4 inches (88 x 51 x 54 cm)

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Franz West

Künstlerstuhl (Artist's Chair), 2006/2022

Stainless steel, epoxy resin, and acrylic lacquer

34 5/8 x 20 1/8 x 21 1/4 inches (88 x 51 x 54 cm)

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Notable examples of installations of West's furniture include his 1997 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in 1989 (where they were arranged amidst the museum’s old master paintings); and at the Venice Biennale in 1990, where West placed them outdoors at the Punta della Dogana.

Installation view, Projects 61: Franz West, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1997

“West’s singular history has made his social art unlike any other. Moreover, it is an art that defies easy categorization, slipping as it does between the pure and the applied arts, and the contemplative and the functional.… Yet, if it may be called an art of indeterminate and indefinite forms, it is one with an unmistakable signature.”

—Lynne Cooke, senior curator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Franz West

Homepage, 2000

Gouache and collage on offset and laser prints in artist's frames in eleven (11) parts

Overall dimensions variable
Framed, each: 17 1/2 x 24 3/8 inches (44.5 x 62 cm)

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Franz West, Homepage, 2000 (detail)

“In contrast to an initial skepticism and cynical contempt of any kind of ‘material fetishism,’ I have come to realize, over the years, that exploring the respective qualities of a material is, in fact, precisely what I want.”

—Franz West in conversation with Bice Curiger, 2004

Installation view, Franz West, David Zwirner, Los Angeles, 2023

Franz West

Untitled (Investigation of American Art), 1991-1993

Collage and paint on paper in two (2) parts

Overall dimensions variable
Left: 12 1/4 x 16 1/2 inches (31.1 x 41.9 cm)
Right: 10 3/4 x 17 1/8 inches (27.3 x 43.5 cm)
Framed, each: 19 3/4 x 18 5/8 inches (50.2 x 47.3 cm)

Private Collection

In Los Angeles, a significant grouping of West’s self-coined “legitimate sculptures” from the 1990s anchor the presentation. The 1990s marked a period in which West became increasingly interested in different ways of subverting traditional notions of sculpture, creating a series of abstract, painted papier-mâché and plaster forms.

Franz West

Limerick, 1994

Fiberglass, paint, gauze, foam, liquid, and plastic

87 x 16 x 28 inches (221 x 40.6 x 71.1 cm)

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Limerick, which resembles a decomposing surfboard, was first exhibited in West's 1994 solo show at David Zwirner. The work was made on site with Zwirner’s assistance by applying thick layers of yellow paint to a surfboard. Slyly referencing his gallerist’s hobby and frequent pastime, West’s sculpture is at once recognizable and completely unusable as a surfboard, creating a playful disjuncture between object and function.

Franz West and David Zwirner working on Limerick (1994) for Franz West: Home Elements (A Retrospective), 43 Greene Street, New York, 1994

David Zwirner with Franz West’s Limerick, 1994

“Most often, West works in the tradition of the found object, but the everyday things he uses he alters unrecognizably, layering on papier-mâché, paint, or metallic foil as a means of tackling enormous sculptural issues.… In the context of the museum or gallery, this would give them a certain radical subversiveness—embodiments of digestion, they mock what would digest them.”

—Helmut Draxler, art historian, critic, curator, and professor

Franz West

Telefonat (Phone Call), 1997

Two (2) artist tables and four (4) sculptures; metal, wood, papier-mâché, gauze, plaster, and paint

Overall: 68 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 61 1/2 inches (174 x 85.1 x 156.2 cm)

Humorously playing with the notion of the pedestal, sculptures from this period are often supported by found objects that include rolls of tape and paint cans, among other common materials, such as West’s own studio tables, as in the present work.

Franz West, Telefonat (Phone Call), 1997 (detail)

“There are traces of Giacometti’s surrealist plaster sculptures, Arp’s anthropomorphic abstractions and the central importance of materiality in Dubuffet’s painting. This multiplicity of references is an indication of West’s interest in reducing his own artistic subject and its imprint on the creative process.”

—Bo Nilsson, composer and lyricist

Franz West

Untitled, 1998

Structural steel, paint bucket lid, papier-mâché, gauze, plaster, dispersion, and acrylic

25 x 14 x 14 inches (63.5 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm)

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Franz West, Untitled, 1998 (detail)

Franz West

Three Times the Same, 1998

Papier-mâché, paint, plastic, gauze and wood

Overall dimensions variable
Left: 22 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 16 inches (56.5 x 41.3 x 40.6 cm)
Middle: 32 3/4 x 12 1/2 x 12 inches (83.2 x 31.8 x 30.5 cm)
Right: 25 x 16 x 12 1/4 inches (63.5 x 40.6 x 31.1 cm)

Three Times the Same is composed of three totemic, painted papier-mâché forms, each mounted on a pedestal of different heights, arranged contiguously. In this way, West sets up an implicit relationship between the elements, each informing the viewer's understanding of the other.

Installation view, Franz West’s Three Times the Same (1998), on view in the 12th Biennale of Sydney, 2000

Installation view, Franz West, David Zwirner, Los Angeles, 2023

“The scenario for the Legitimate Sculpture … was different; West was not trying to protect the works or suggest a certain refinement by treating them as pedestal-objects. Rather, he was announcing their autonomy, and, in so doing, advancing the standalone rigor of his art to himself and the public at a critically important time. Not allowing contact with the work had the effect of diminishing its reliance on external animation, thrusting forward its intellectual demands.”

—Darsie Alexander, chief curator, the Jewish Museum, New York

Franz West

Pleonasme (Pleonasm), 1999

Papier-mâché, plastic, plaster, glue, paint, and tape with painted wood and MDF artist's pedestal

Overall: 91 x 34 x 41 1/2 inches (231.1 x 86.4 x 105.4 cm)

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The present work rests on a roll of packing tape, balanced on a rough, open-backed pedestal. The work was originally titled Gussform (roetliche Flammungen) (Mold [Reddish Flames Applications]), but on the occasion of his 2000 solo exhibition at The Renaissance Society in Chicago, West re-titled this and five other sculptures Pleonasme.

The sculpture's title is defined in the dictionary as "the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy."

Franz West, Pleonasme (Pleonasm), 1999 (detail)

Installation view, Franz West: Pre-Semblance and The Everyday, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, 2000

An avid reader, West “engaged with concepts and paragraphs as though with an artistic material, molding them and trying to render them graspable and palpable,” Andreas Reiter Raabe writes. “I think that he worked with them as his material just as he worked with plaster or papier-mâché: that gave rise to paradoxical precision which, in most instances, led to something completely different from what the original authors had intended.”

Franz West in his apartment in 2006. Photo by Didi Sattmann

“[West’s work is made up of] many voices, many hands, many eyes. When West adds color to his objects and furniture, he frequently delegates the decision to objectors. When he creates titles, he regularly turns to linguistically talented people. And for the fulfillment of the artworks he is dependent on other people.… All of this is possible because the artworks have an open, inviting, and thoroughly generous character.”

—Daniel Birnbaum, curator and critic

Installation view, Franz West, David Zwirner, Los Angeles, 2023

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