Franz West grew up amidst the ruins of post-war Vienna. His father was a coal merchant. His Jewish mother was a dentist whom he would accompany on cultural trips to Italy. West started drawing from an early age and studied at the Academy in Vienna. He was taught by Bruno Girancoli, who supported his use of plaster and polyester. His early work was affiliated with the Viennese Actionism of the 1960s, with performance artists who engaged in acts such as self-mutilation. In their view, the natural, bloodthirsty nature of mankind was suppressed by social conventions. This energy could be liberated through physical contact with blood.
West emphatically avoided the physical trials and existential intensity of Actionism and opted for a relaxed lightness that prioritised the themes of the body, sexuality and socially anchored sculpture. In around 1970, under the influence of pop art, he created painted collages using images from magazines. In advertising and fashion photography he saw models in stereotypically neurotic poses who had been neutralised by contrasting backgrounds. He isolated the models by obliterating their surroundings with thick paint. He would later deploy the mostly sexually suggestive poses for his research into the popular gaze.
In the 1970s, West made ‘Passstücke’, sculptures in plaster, polyester and papier-maché, which were intended as extensions of the body. He indicated how the sculptures could be used via performances. The communicative manner in which he invited people to actively participate is characteristic of his oeuvre. He stimulated the audience, but also disrupted it. West described the ‘Passstücke’ as depictions of neuroses.
Under the title ‘Labstücke’, he processed fragile materials, such as glass bottles, into sculptures. He also experimented with elegant, spindly seating through which he alluded to our personal living space and the social activities that may or may not take place therein. The distinction between art object and utensil, design and furniture, high and low culture is called into question. Humour and a refusal to take himself and his oeuvre seriously are related to this and important constants in his work.
In around 1990, West shifted his attention to large organic-abstract papier-maché sculptures. He immersed himself in the relationship between the physical and psychological experience of reality. Towards the end of that decade, he created huge lacquered aluminium sculptures, formally inspired by the Vienna sausage. These were monochrome. Their irregular surfaces invited you to touch them, but also to sit or lie on the works. Because they stimulate an interaction between artwork and audience, the experience of West’s works continues to evolve and, as such, is indefinite.
Franz West was already recognised in the early 1980s and represented Austria many times at the Venice Biennale, where he won the Golden Lion in 2011 for his lifetime’s work. He also participated in Documenta Kassel in 1992 and 1997.
