News / Franz West / Museum Exhibitions

On View

Franz West in
When Forms Come Alive

Through May 6, 2024
Hayward Gallery, London
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Spanning over sixty years of contemporary sculpture, When Forms Come Alive highlights ways in which artists draw on familiar experiences of movement, flux, and organic growth. Inspired by sources ranging from a dancer’s gesture to the breaking of a wave, from a flow of molten metal to the interlacing of a spider’s web, the works by twenty-one international artists conjure fluid and shifting realms of experience. Work by Franz West is included.

Closed

El eco de Picasso

October 2, 2023–March 30, 2024
Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
museopicassomalaga.org

Organized as part of Picasso Celebration 1973–2023, a series of international exhibitions and events commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, The Echo of Picasso focuses on his influence on twentieth-century art. The exhibition places Picasso’s practice in dialogue with work by more than fifty artists, including Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willem de Kooning, Thomas Houseago, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Richard Prince, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Cy Twombly, Tom Wesselmann, and Franz West.

Closed

Paraventi
Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries

October 26, 2023–February 22, 2024
Fondazione Prada, Milan
www.fondazioneprada.org

This exhibition investigates the histories and semantics of folding screens by tracing trajectories of cross-pollination between the East and the West, processes of hybridization between different art forms and functions, collaborations between designers and artists, and the emergence of new works. Paraventi presents more than seventy folding screens as well as a selection of contemporary projects, commissioned specifically for this show, by more than fifteen international artists. Work by Francis Bacon, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Jean Prouvé, Ed Ruscha, Cy Twombly, and Franz West is included.

Closed

Albert Oehlen
“Grandi quadri miei con piccoli quadri di altri”

September 5, 2021–February 20, 2022
Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
masilugano.ch

In this exhibition, Albert Oehlen: “Big Paintings by Me with Small Paintings by Others”, select works from Oehlen’s personal art collection are on view alongside some of his most significant paintings. In staging this large-scale exhibition, Oehlen aims to make relationships perceptible between his artworks and those by artists whose practices he has long admired. Work by Richard Artschwager, Willem de Kooning, Duane Hanson, Mike Kelley, and Franz West, among others, is included.

Closed

The 80s
Art of the Eighties

October 17, 2021–February 13, 2022
Albertina Modern, Vienna
www.albertina.at

Some consider the 1980s to be the most important decade for the art of our age. For the first time, art was no longer determined by a dominant style, such as abstraction or Pop, but rather embodied an unprecedented stylistic pluralism that was a hallmark of postmodernism. This exhibition, curated by Albertina Modern director Angela Stief, examines the variety of artistic approaches and strategies that defined the era. Work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Albert Oehlen, Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.

Closed

Wonderland

May 7–September 19, 2021
Albertina Modern, Vienna
www.albertina.at

Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this exhibition features more than a hundred contemporary artworks from the Albertina’s collection organized into seven different “chapters” conceived as independent yet loosely connected “worlds.”  Work by Georg Baselitz, Katharina Grosse, Anselm Kiefer, Roy Lichtenstein, Albert Oehlen, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.

Closed

The Paradox of Stillness
Art, Object, and Performance

May 15–August 8, 2021
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
walkerart.org

Featuring works from the early twentieth century to today, The Paradox of Stillness examines the notion of stillness as both a performative and a visual gesture. More than sixty-five artists present object-based art, pictures, and actions staged by live performers to test the boundaries between stillness and motion, mortality and aliveness, and the still life and the living picture. Work by Urs Fischer, Piero Manzoni, Tom Wesselmann, and Franz West is included.

Closed

00s. Collection Cranford
Les années 2000

October 24, 2020–May 30, 2021
Mo.Co. Contemporary, Montpellier, France
www.moco.art

This exhibition of work from the Cranford Collection, established by Muriel and Freddy Salem in 1999, aims to define the identity of the 2000s by creating a dialogue between one hundred artworks by a multigenerational array of artists who contributed to shaping the beginning of the millennium. Work by Glenn Brown, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Albert Oehlen, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Franz West, and Christopher Wool is included.

Closed

Third Dimension
Works from the Brant Foundation

November 13, 2019–September 3, 2020
Brant Foundation, New York
brantfoundation.org

Bringing together more than twenty artists integral to the Brant Foundation’s collection, this exhibition offers a glimpse into the multifaceted practices of artists whose work Peter M. Brant has collected over the past fifty years. Work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Urs Fischer, Mike Kelley, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.

Closed

Franz West

February 20–June 2, 2019
Tate Modern, London
www.tate.org.uk

Tate Modern presents a retrospective on the work of Franz West, with almost two hundred artworks West made between 1972 and 2012. The show includes his rarely exhibited drawings from the early 1970s as well as his first sculptures, Passstücke, begun in 1973, alongside a selection of the papier-mâché sculptures of the 1980s, and West’s celebrated collaborations with fellow artists. The exhibition also features the collages and drawings of his later years, as well as models for open-air works and a selection of such sculptures, in addition to his furniture works. This extensive presentation highlights not only the artist’s outstanding capacity for formal invention, but also his irreverent and caustic sensibility. This exhibition has traveled from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Closed

Franz West

September 12–December 10, 2018
Centre Pompidou, Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr

Centre Pompidou presents a retrospective on the work of Franz West, with almost two hundred artworks made between 1972 and 2012. The show includes his rarely exhibited drawings from the early 1970s as well as his first sculptures, Passstücke, begun in 1973–74, alongside a selection of the papier-mâché sculptures of the 1980s, and West’s celebrated collaborations with fellow artists. The exhibition also features the collages and drawings of his later years, as well as models for open-air works and a selection of such sculptures, in addition to his furniture works. This extensive presentation highlights not only the artist’s outstanding capacity for formal invention, but also his irreverent and caustic sensibility.

Closed

We Are Here

August 19, 2017–April 1, 2018
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
mcachicago.org

In honor of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s fiftieth anniversary, the museum presents We Are Here, a three-part exhibition drawn from its collection. I Am You gathers works that question how we relate to and shape our environments; You Are Here examines how the role of the viewer has changed over time; and We Are Everywhere showcases artists who borrow from popular culture. Work by Richard Artschwager, Francis Bacon, Chris Burden, Ellen Gallagher, Andreas Gursky, Michael Heizer, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Rudolf Stingel, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.

Closed

Paper into Sculpture

October 14, 2017–February 4, 2018
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
www.nashersculpturecenter.org

This exhibition plays on tensions between commonly held understandings of sculpture and what paper can and cannot do, pushed to its physical limits. Treating paper as a material with a palpable three-dimensional presence rather than as a mere support for mark making, artists in this show use processes ranging from tearing, crumpling, and cutting to scattering, binding, and adhering to create sculptural works that take a variety of forms and suggest a range of expressive and conceptual implications. Work by Nancy Rubins and Franz West is included.

Closed

Wild West

September 19, 2017–January 22, 2018
Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
www.acfny.org

Wild West is a group exhibition commemorating the dynamic legacy of the late Austrian artist Franz West. Curated by former West collaborator Andreas Reiter Raabe, the show consists of works by Franz West, his New York–based contemporaries, including Urs Fischer and Rudolf Stingel, and commissioned works by emerging artists from both New York and Austria.

Closed

57th Biennale di Venezia
Viva Arte Viva

May 13–November 26, 2017
Giardini and Arsenale, Venice
www.labiennale.org

Curated by Christine Macel, Viva Arte Viva is a Biennale designed by and for artists, about the forms they propose, the questions they ask, the practices they develop, and the ways of life they choose. The exhibition unfolds over the course of nine chapters, or families of artists, beginning with two introductory realms in the Central Pavilion, followed by seven across the Arsenale through the Giardino delle Vergini. Work by Hao Liang and Franz West is included.

Closed

Unpacking
The Marciano Collection

May 25–September 16, 2017
Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles
marcianoartfoundation.org

Unpacking: The Marciano Collection is the debut presentation of the collection’s holdings organized by Philipp Kaiser. The title and theme of the show are derived from Walter Benjamin’s essay “Unpacking My Library,” in which he discusses the chaotic potentiality inherent in unpacking and recontextualizing one’s collection. Work by Mark Grotjahn, Jennifer Guidi, Thomas Houseago, Alex Israel, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Sterling Ruby, Cindy Sherman, Franz West, Jonas Wood, and Christopher Wool is included.

Closed

Duet with Artist
Participation as an Artistic Principle

May 21–September 3, 2017
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
www.museum-morsbroich.de

The role of the audience in the creative process of a work of art is at the center of this exhibition. Different forms of participation are offered, following directional structures evoking critical thought processes or generating collaboration with others. Work by Davide Balula, Yves Klein, Bruce Nauman, and Franz West is included.

Closed

Body Doubles

February 4–June 25, 2017
Lokremise, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland
www.lokremise.ch

This exhibition focuses on the tension between the body as a sculptural volume in space and the negative space that surrounds it. The core of the show will include works by Hans Josephsohn and Franz West, while installations by Urs Fischer and Pipilotti Rist expand the dialogue.

Closed

Franz West
Artistclub

December 14, 2016–April 23, 2017
Belvedere, Vienna
www.belvedere.at

Curated by Harald Krejci, this window into Franz West’s collaborative art practice examines a selection of work the artist made with fellow artists such as Urs Fischer, Douglas Gordon, and Albert Oehlen.