Franz West (Austrian, 1947-2012) is known for willfully unserious, non-ideological, and sometimes mischievously erotic mixed-media drawings, sculptures, and furniture. Intentionally crude collages combine awkwardly isolated figures from magazine ads with slapdash coats of thick paint and representations of the artist’s own sculptures. West’s Paßstücke (Adaptives) are bizarrely shaped assemblages made of papier-mâché, plaster, and other humble materials originally meant to be handled, worn, or played with. His large colorful sculptures of lacquered aluminum reference and gleefully mock the usual formal decorum of abstract sculpture.
This exhibition is drawn from the Hall Collection and presented in conjunction with the Hall Art Foundation’s installation of West’s monumental outdoor sculpture Les Pommes d’Adam (2007) at MASS MoCA.
