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Franz West

Displacement and Condensation

September 12–October 21, 2006
Britannia Street, London

Franz West: Displacement and Condensation Installation view

Franz West: Displacement and Condensation

Installation view

Franz West: Displacement and Condensation Installation view

Franz West: Displacement and Condensation

Installation view

Works Exhibited

Franz West, Workingtable and Worktop, 2006 Five papier maché sculpture on table, Dimensions variable

Franz West, Workingtable and Worktop, 2006

Five papier maché sculpture on table, Dimensions variable

Franz West, 2 Larvae, 2004 Lacquered aluminum in 2 parts, 1: 90 ½ × 63 × 63 inches (229.9 × 160 × 160 cm), 2: 78 ¾ × 41 ¼ × 53 1/3 inches (200 × 104.8 × 135.5 cm)

Franz West, 2 Larvae, 2004

Lacquered aluminum in 2 parts, 1: 90 ½ × 63 × 63 inches (229.9 × 160 × 160 cm), 2: 78 ¾ × 41 ¼ × 53 1/3 inches (200 × 104.8 × 135.5 cm)

Franz West, Posterdesign (Der Ficker Nr.2), 2005 Collage on paper on foamboard, 59 × 51 3/16 inches (150 × 130 cm)

Franz West, Posterdesign (Der Ficker Nr.2), 2005

Collage on paper on foamboard, 59 × 51 3/16 inches (150 × 130 cm)

Franz West, Poster Design (Drunk vs. Stoned), 2005 Collage and gouache on foamcore, 26 × 27 inches (66 × 68.6 cm)

Franz West, Poster Design (Drunk vs. Stoned), 2005

Collage and gouache on foamcore, 26 × 27 inches (66 × 68.6 cm)

Franz West, Lemur, 2005 Polyester, steel, 94 ½ × 59 × 59 inches (240 × 150 × 150 cm)

Franz West, Lemur, 2005

Polyester, steel, 94 ½ × 59 × 59 inches (240 × 150 × 150 cm)

About

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Franz West. The exhibition will include many of West’s signature pieces, including furniture (new tables, chairs and lamps), collages, papier-mâché sculptures, aluminum sculptures and a new form of sculpture made of polyester.

Franz West belongs to a generation of artists influenced by action and performance art of the 1960s who rejected the passive nature of viewing and making art, as well as the ritualistic activities of the Viennese Aktionisten group of the 1960s–’70s, who used the body to trigger cathartic experiences. In the early 1970s, West began making a series of small, portable sculptures called Passstücke (Adaptives), plaster objects that were completed as artworks when the viewer picked them up, wore them or carried them around. In many ways his later works are versions of these, setting in motion a variety of bodily attitudes and positions, which transform public spaces into sociable environments for viewing art.

The colorful amorphous forms of West’s new sculptures combine characteristics of physical, psychological and mystical worlds. Using materials that refuse conventional aesthetic connotations, West magnifies basic shapes and simple sculptures. In the new group of outdoor polyester sculptures, the artist uses a single colour to cover the uneven surfaces; with their looping arches and colourful forms these sculptures blur the boundary between art and bodily experience, and also between the artist and contemporary media. Such handmade, “anti-sculptures” reject traditions of the sublime and the monumental in twentieth century sculpture, and are works that the viewer can have a personal, physical and tactile encounter. West also incorporates furniture into the exhibition, asking the viewer to engage, sit and relax within the sculpture.

A fully illustrated catalogue, including a conversation between the artist and Sarah Lucas and an interview with Benedikt Ledebur, will accompany the exhibition.