Franz West

A major figure of the Viennese art scene, Franz West developed a sculptural and installation-based practice from the early 1970s onward that challenges the boundaries between everyday functional objects and works of art. Chairs, tables, armchairs, sofas, beds, carpets, and even upholstery fabrics become, in turn, vehicles for a critical, provocative, and often deliberately irreverent reflection on the nature and scope of the artistic gesture.

Influenced by performance art and Viennese Actionism, West took an early interest in the role of the body in art and argued for a radical merging of art and life. Beginning in the 1970s, he created portable papier-mâché sculptures known as Paßstücke (Adaptives), inviting the public to interact with them and to perform.

Playful in spirit, his works challenge traditional frameworks of art. By the late 1980s, Franz West was creating installations that sit at the intersection of sculpture and furniture—objects designed to be used, altered, and activated by the public. Everyday objects and furnishings thus became a central motif in his work.