Franz West Retrospective at Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art hosted the first major US retrospective of Austrian artist Franz West, titled "To Build a House You Start with the Roof," from December 10, 2008, to January 4, 2009. Curated by Darsie Alexander, the exhibition featured over 100 works spanning West's career, including four "Wegener Raüme" (1988) never before seen in the US and the monumental "Lemure Heads" from Documenta IX (1992). Two new works were produced for the show: "The Ego and the Id" (2008), a towering DNA-like metal sculpture painted in bright acrylics, and a series of "Grosse Lampen" (2008). West, influenced by Viennese Actionism but seeking to move beyond its violence, created adaptive sculptures and portable prostheses that invited viewer interaction. His use of raw materials like resin, papier-mâché, iron, and polystyrene echoed the rough finish of early Pop works by Oldenburg and Rauschenberg. The exhibition's interactive elements, including green hand signs indicating touchable objects and a reading area with newspapers, reflected West's interest in passivity and meditation, akin to John Cage. However, the review criticizes the installation as overly tidy and lacking the visceral impact of West's Viennese Actionist roots, with the chronological reverse order making earlier pale sculptures appear inert next to the chromatic shock of "The Ego and the Id." The show was scheduled to travel to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2009.