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The Arts Intel Report

Franz West

Franz West in his studio in Vienna, 1995.

Mar 9 – May 31, 2023
525 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011, United States

In 1970, when the Austrian artist Franz West was only 23, he started experimenting with drawing, then quickly moved on to painted collages. At the time, Vienna’s Actionism movement was paramount. Rejecting object-based practices, artists were instead caught up in performance art. West, however, was more interested in America’s Pop art. His paintings soon evolved into portable sculptures made from everyday objects, which he called “Adaptives.” These would only become “art” when worn or touched. West died in 2012 at age 65, but left behind an organic and playful body of work. Several colorful, larger-than-life sculptures are on view in this show. An exhibition that surveys five decades of West’s career is concurrently up in David Zwirner’s Paris gallery. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © Archive Franz West