Franz West

I used to hope that my art would be a scream. On the contrary, it was like a blossom.
—Franz West

Gagosian is pleased to present a career-spanning exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by Franz West.

From abstract and interactive sculpture to furniture and collage, West’s protean oeuvre possesses a character that is at once lighthearted and deeply philosophical. Manipulating everyday materials and imagery in order to examine art’s relation to social experience, West revolutionized the interplay of concealment and exposure, action and reaction, both in and outside the gallery.

The exhibition marks key formal and conceptual developments in West’s creative process. While the early plaster sculptures, Passstücke (Adaptives), were made to be moved, touched, and handled—transforming viewers into participants—later works incorporate more fragile materials, such as papier-mâché and glass bottles, which he combined in the Labstücke (Refresher Pieces) from the early 1980s. In 1986, West reversed the impetus behind his earlier sculpture, creating static works that maintain a sense of fragility and flux, eschewing the idea that sculpture is a fixed, permanent entity detached from the viewer’s world. Untitled (Triangolo n.1) (1988), a white, diamond-like sculpture, is displayed on a metal stand like a rare, distorted jewel; and Skeptik (1987) is comprised of brown paper interspersed with gray, black, and peach pigments, resembling a chunk of marbled earth.