(Vienna 1947–2012)
Untitled, c.1974, sculpture, papier-mâché, paint, lacquer, 41 x 34 x 3 cm, (K)

Registered:
Franz West Privatstiftung Archiv, Vienna

Provenance:
From a Collection, USA

Compare:
Franz West, Work 1972–2008, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2008, p.p. 22 and 274/2

Franz West, Proforma, Oktagon 1996, p.136

Whilst the use of these wall and floor objects is still bound to the physical location of their installation, in 1974 West first produced sculptures designed expressly as portable objects for use anywhere, thereby rejecting any connection with traditional places for storing and presenting art – such as museums, exhibitions or even living rooms.
This development starts with a group of flat, relief-like objects in painted papier-mâché, marking the effective transition from paintings to three-dimensional objects. As in West’s early works, their sensitive surface designs are beholden to an aesthetic of conciseness, spontaneity and fragility. With forms which are individual, yet always simple and concentrated, these works give the appearance of ‘Viennese variations’ of the ‘shaped canvases’ which resist American perfectionism whilst simultaneously activating layers of experience: their accentuated roundness evoke associations with female parts of the body, an effect also unavoidably repeated in the pieces West creates in the shape of a guitar. West himself refers to the simple, sensitive forms in Richard Tuttle’s early poetic wall reliefs as a source of inspiration for these works. West’s simple, flat, sculptural forms are the starting point for the hugely varied groups of works which followed. He initially created such surfaces in colour. Some he painted in salmon pink tones, for example; colours reminiscent of flesh and skin, as well as ladies’ undergarments, which in turn evokes associations with female breasts, hips or buttocks…
Eva Badura-Trisak, Objektbilder und Paßstücke - ibid.