It is important for West that his work can be touched, handled and used by the spectator, breaking with their usual passive role.ĭuring the early nineties, West reflects on the pedestal entity, causing a metamorphosis in him that leads him to being substituted with televisions, cupboards, suitcases, boxes, fire extinguishers and refrigerators. His style is inspired by the Viennese Secession and their names are not at all devoid of parody: Diván Velázquez (Velázquez Divan), Sillón Rembrandt (Rembrandt Armchair) and Sillón Bellini (Bellini Armchair), all from 1989 and made from steel and newspaper.
The pieces of furniture created by West are preceded by other works from artists such as Dieter Roth and Richard Artschwager and, like the Adaptables, these iron proto-chairs and divans demand to be used by the spectator. Despite exhibiting the pieces on the ground during his 1980 presentation along with mirrors and photographs of people using them, for this exhibition they are displayed on pedestals.
#FRANZ WEST MANUAL#
These ergonomic prostheses, designed for the visitor to wear them on their own body, are completely manual and fulfil the role of making our neuroses visible. This retrospective collection begins it could not have been done otherwise, with Adaptables (Pabstückes) which West created during the Seventies. All his pieces stake irony and humour, features that, along with his personal aesthetic, so very ingrained in Central European sculptural tradition, make West one of the most charismatic artists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
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This exhibition at the Palacio de Velázquez Parque del Retiro in Madrid aims to uncover the work of this versatile artist who has created sculptures, paintings, collages and installations with equal success.
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