Harald Szeemann on Franz West: Poetics of Neurosis

Artpress republishes Harald Szeemann's 1989 essay on Franz West, coinciding with the artist's exhibition at David Zwirner Paris (until April 13, 2023). Szeemann describes West's sculptural 'Gebilde' as fragile, crusty papier-mâché forms that resist traditional labels, embodying states rather than finished works. Born in Vienna in 1946, West lived above his mother's dental practice, hearing patients' cries. After travels in the 1960s and drug-related arrests, he produced early musical transpositions (1971-1974) inspired by Gérard Souzay and Cathy Berberian. From 1977-1982 he studied under Bruno Gironcoli at the Academy of Fine Arts, developing 'Passstücke'—polyester body sculptures meant to be worn, visualizing neuroses. Szeemann contrasts these with Viennese Actionism, noting their lack of exhibitionism. By 1984-85 West combined found objects, polyester, plaster, and papier-mâché, creating monochrome wall reliefs and large-scale works like 'Zitat' (1985), a lead-covered bedstead mounted vertically on uneven iron legs. For Münster's 1987 Skulptur Projekte, he installed 'Eo ipso' at the intersection of Breite Gasse and Krumme Strasse, using a former washing machine and two armchairs linked by an iron auditory hallucination, painted light green. Szeemann praises West's poetic, subversive freedom, rooted in Austrian culture's 'joyful apocalypse.'