Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich
Private Collection, New York

From abstract and interactive sculpture to furniture and collage, Franz West’s oeuvre possesses a character that is at once light-hearted and deeply philosophical. Belonging to a generation of artists exposed to the Actionist and Performance Art of the 1960s and 70s, West instinctively rejected the idea of a passive relationship between artwork and viewer, for example creating sculptures that could be sat or lain upon, in other cases worn. He produced work that was vigorous and imposing yet unbounded and buoyant. Manipulating everyday materials and imagery in order to examine art’s relation to social experience, West revolutionized the interplay of concealment and exposure, action and reaction, both in and outside the gallery.
In the work Kugel (Sphere), 2002, the artist used a common material, aluminium, to create a round, uneven shape that evokes a sense of solid repose whereas the white colour provides playful lightness. The lines on the surface allude to the process by which Kugel (Sphere) was formed and gives it an air of imperfection, which is intriguingly juxtaposed with its strong visual presence and beauty.