The next year, his first institutional show in Vienna was held at the Secession gallery. In 1986 in Graz, Austria, West first exhibited what he called ‘ Legitimate Sculptures’. But in the installation Passstücke mit Box und Video 1996 there are four pieces you can pick up and play with. Today most of these pieces are too fragile to be handled. ![]() West incorporated many of these images in his collages and posters. Friends and other artists were photographed and filmed using them, sometimes to classical music or jazz compositions by Franz Kogelmann. West’s Adaptives became a significant component of the history of sculpture and performance. West himself later found an English equivalent for this work, calling them Adaptives and suggesting that they adapt to viewers as viewers adapt to them. In 1980 when they were exhibited for the first time in Vienna, poet Reinhard Priessnitz called them Passstücke. He felt that the way people used them gave external form to their neuroses and desires. People’s interaction with them was both playful and awkward.įor West, these works could function like extensions of the human body. Viewers could handle them in any way they chose. Many incorporated everyday objects such as paint brushes or even a radio. As his collages here show, he took a different approach – less obviously shocking, but humorous and provocative.įrom 1973, West began to work on a group of sculptures made of papier mâché and plaster in various shapes and sizes. He was more ambivalent about the Viennese Actionists, a group of slightly older artists whose performances were deliberately scandalous. The ornamental style of the German art movement Jugendstil fascinated him. West’s early works were informed by Viennese nightlife, mass media, and the different art movements in the city. His half-brother Otto Kobalek, who was associated with the Wiener Gruppe of experimental writers, was another key influence. He worked briefly under the mentorship of Austrian artist Bruno Gironcoli. In 1971, he took her maiden name West as his surname.Īs a self-taught artist, West picked up ideas from those around him. West referred to his first drawings as ‘Mutterkunst’ (mother art): art made to please his mother. She was a dentist from a middle-class Jewish family who often surrounded herself with artists. West’s mother Emilie played an important role for him. He got arrested twice and was regarded as an outsider. He spent days and nights in Viennese coffee houses and bars drinking heavily and experimenting with drugs. In the late 1960s West began making art, though for many years he was not taken very seriously. She has designed the pedestals, walls and barriers in this show – an example of how West remains so important for artists today. British artist Sarah Lucas was a friend of West’s, and they collaborated on several occasions. So did the leisurely atmosphere of coffee houses and the legacy of psychoanalysis as conceived by Sigmund Freud, including the idea of reclining and talking. The work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and Viennese experimental literature attracted him. ![]() West lived in Vienna and was very connected to its culture. In his work he often used materials associated with the kindergarten like papier mâché, incorporating empty alcohol bottles, and slathering on paint while on the telephone to friends. He began producing furniture, which he also saw as sculptures. By the mid-80s, he was showing ‘Legitimate Sculptures’ on pedestals. These were some of the first interactive sculptures in twentieth-century art. In the mid-70s, West developed small sculptures (the Passstücke or Adaptives) which people could play with. He was fascinated by the work of other artists and collaborated with them in various ways. ![]() ![]() Franz West, who died in 2012, combined an irreverent and playful approach to sculpture, furniture and collage with an interest in philosophy, literature and music.
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