Franz West
Auto-Theatre
12 December 2009–14 March 2010
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Heinrich-Böll-Platz
50667 Köln
T +49-(0) 221-221 24483
F +49-(0) 221-221 24114
The Austrian artist Franz West (born in 1947 in Vienna) is one of the foremost artists of the times. The exhibition at Museum Ludwig features over 40 pieces and constel-lations of works from the period 1972 to the present, and allows the visitor to experi-ence the sheer complexity and uniqueness of his creative output. From his first Adap-tives (Passstücke) and collages in the Seventies, to his papier-mâché sculptures, furniture and site-specific installations, and on to his picture walls from the Eighties and his latest sculptures for public spaces, this retrospective underscores the extra-ordinary creative energy that pulses through his work.
West began to develop his famous Adaptives in 1974, just as the slogan “Everyone is an artist” was getting popular. Reacting to the passivity of simply viewing art at an exhibition, Franz West entrusted the visitors with these snow white, mostly organic forms made of plaster, papier-mâché or metal so as to encourage a new, active rela-tionship between viewer and artwork. This new, interactive approach left a lasting mark on the younger generations and new tendencies in the nineties, such as “De-sign Art” and “Relational Aesthetics”.
Cologne has played an important part in Franz West’s career. His Adaptives were presented for the first time at the exhibition Westkunst in 1981, where they prompted international interest. In 1998 the artist was awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft für Moder ne Kunst am Museum Ludwig, which led to the purchase of his “Kantine” for the museum. This was followed in 2006 by the purchase of the work “Plural”. Consequently the retrospective Auto-Theatre is the next logical step in the museum’s ongoing interest in Franz West’s oeuvre. Franz West will personally ar-range the works in Cologne, combining old and new and thus creating new contexts.
