Art Fair
Frieze Masters 2023
Franz West: Papier
October 12–15, 2023, booth E01
Regent’s Park, London
www.frieze.com
Gagosian is pleased to participate in the 2023 edition of Frieze Masters with a presentation of paper-based works by Franz West that spans his career from the early 1970s through the 2010s, conceived in association with the Estate of Franz West and through the initiative of the Franz West Privatstiftung.
Collaging and overpainting imagery from print media, West disrupted the pictorial continuity of his sources and confounded expectations between public display and subjective experience. Blending abstraction and figuration, West’s works on paper exhibit an absurdist wit, with some exploring a mischievous vulgarity through an emphasis on bodily functions and erotic themes. The related Plakatentwürfe (Poster designs) of the 1990s and 2000s combine paint, collage, and digital printing to announce or commemorate West’s exhibitions, and serve as works of art in their own right.
Chosen in collaboration with artist Oscar Murillo, the selection in London highlights West’s irreverence and ingenuity. As Murillo notes, “He has always been a hero. With this presentation for Frieze Masters, it is a huge honor to share a new intimacy with his works: these drawings, sculptures, and furniture. It has been a pleasure to put them together in conversation.”
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Installation
Franz West
November 16, 2023–March 15, 2024
Gagosian Shop, London
A selection of paper-based works and furniture by Franz West is on view at the Gagosian Shop in London’s historic Burlington Arcade. Installed throughout both floors of the space, the exhibited works are imbued with the Austrian artist’s riotous fusion of sincerity and absurdity. West’s series of drawings, posters, and collages, conjured from photographs, tawdry advertisements, and soft porn, possess the same raucous aesthetic and wit as his plaster and papier-mâché sculptures and his elegant pieces of functional furniture, which further expand the relationship between art and audience.
Franz West installation at Gagosian Shop, London, November 16, 2023–March 15, 2024. Artwork © Archiv Franz West, © Estate Franz West. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
In Conversation
Oscar Murillo and Ben Luke
On Franz West
Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 6pm
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London
Join Gagosian for a conversation between Oscar Murillo and arts writer, critic, and broadcaster Ben Luke in conjunction with Franz West: Papier, the gallery’s presentation of paper-based works by Franz West (1947–2012) at Frieze Masters 2023. The pair will discuss Murillo’s collaboration in selecting the works on view, which date from the 1970s through the 2010s, as well as his personal experiences meeting the late artist in London in the late 2000s and the enduring impact West continues to have on artists today.
Left: Oscar Murillo. Photo: Stuart Leech, Turner Contemporary, courtesy the artist. Right: Ben Luke
Installation
Franz West
Green Fortune
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Franz West, Green Fortune, 2008 © Archiv Franz West and © Estate Franz West. Photo: Jeff McLane
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