Freie Form

And although Franz West created this sculpture specifically for Middelheim Museum—and hence for an outdoor setting—he associated the color with life that is hidden indoors. “[Pink and brown] are colors for indoors, and also there for closed spaces, for toilets…. Brown, excrement, that also belongs to intimacy.”

In his notes, West struggles with his open-air sculptures. He describes the process as something he has little control over: nature itself ultimately becomes the creator and master of the works. Adding sculptures to nature feels like a violation of nature’s flawless beauty, something for which nature will retaliate by absorbing the artworks.

Franz West was a many-sided Austrian artist. Trained as a painter, he started with contentious collages and graphics. In 1973, he took his first steps towards sculpture with his well-known “Paßstücke”: sculptures as extensions of the body, which the public is allowed to handle. With a great sense of humor, West explored the boundaries between high culture and low, between the art object and the utensil. Research into the relationship between art and social experience, and into the dialogue between viewer and object, is central to his work.