(Vienna 1947–2012)
Untitled, early 1980s, papier-mâché, paint, 13 x 41 x 30 cm

Registered:
Franz West Privatstiftung

Provenance:
Franz West-to an artist friend

On sight
When starting to express myself in sculptural form, I thought works had to ‘appear’ orderly, from all sides, above, below, perfect, harmonious or disharmonious. All perspectives were required to be part of a perfect whole, one which arises of its own accord in the formation of a non-Euclidean sculpture. Ugly or incongruous areas would need to complement the attractive parts in a harmonious manner. And this attractive whole should be preserved in its perfection (eternal value). This notion corresponds perhaps with conceptions of classical sculpture (discus thrower, thorn remover): a closed whole, at peace with itself – ‘noble simplicity, quiet grandeur’. But if this is the approach taken towards execution, then the most interesting parts of the overall harmony must be sacrificed. In classical sculpture some predetermined subject must always be butchered or idealised (satyrs or gods like athletes or down-and-outs). When starting with sculpture, I worked voluntarily as a painter and decorator. I was required to work ‘on sight’, that meant giving customers the impression that each area, the whole, had been carefully done. Yet the reality = the pressure of time prohibited this; we had to give the impression of painting being complete although the nooks and crannies which you didn’t notice had just been quickly touched up. The perfect appearance which painters and decorators are expected to produce on a permanent basis is implicit for sculpture, although this can only be achieved in a fragmentary manner, as explained. This principle of infeasibility in sculpture means: wanting to continue with the irreproducibility of the momentary and unconstructable. (Just as authors often claim that their texts were only created through the act of writing itself.) Extrapolating this to the fine arts, where contemplative action is no longer conceivable, does not result in anything constructible, that, when subjected to pure reason, [is] lost for ever, unless this is regarded as the actual meaning of the object….
Hans Ulrich Olbrist/Ines Turian, Franz West schrieb, Texte von 1975-2010, Buchhandlung Walther König, 2011