Spring Break
International star Franz West graces BMA exhibit
Issue date: 11/6/08
The newest exhibit at the BMA, featuring the work of Austrian artist Franz West, challenges the pristine, formal museum experience with a colorful, interactive experience.
The temporary exhibit marks the first comprehensive survey of Austrian artist Franz West's work in the United States. The exhibit organizes 117 works chronologically, demonstrating the evolution of West's work, tastes and styles over the past three decades.
West is well known for rejecting the typical museum-going experience. His work consciously tries to break the barrier between the artist and the viewer by creating work that is interactive and engaging, thereby making the viewer a part of the art. His work is also demonstratively colorful and playful, exploring a variety of sizes, color palates and media; the playfulness acts as an attempt to make sculpture a social experience. This exhibit is marked by the playground-like quality that permeates West's body of work.
The exhibit immediately creates an impression, beginning with one of West's more recent sculptures, "The Ego and the Id," which consists of two separate sculptures of enormous intertwining metal bands, standing 30 feet tall and painted in various bright colors. It is reminiscent of an enormous, surreal piece of playground equipment, an image enhanced by the group of children at the museum climbing along the swirling bands of layered metal. Initially these enormous and colorful structures are perplexing, as it is unclear whether they are meant to provoke laughter or a sort of mild disturbance and confusion. Standing in the center of the sculpture and looking up creates a sensation of standing in the middle of a Technicolor forest.
The next galleries are less dramatic in size but equally intriguing in content. Upon entering the room, viewers are immediately struck by a series of what looks like bars of metal with balls of white plaster attached to them, something that West describes as "adaptives." West invites the viewer to take these "adaptives" into a small cubicle elegantly lined with newspaper images. The viewer then sees himself in a mirrored wall holding a ridiculous cane of sorts while standing in a room covered in newspaper clippings, inspiring the creation of his own surrealist image. It feels sort of silly, a feeling akin to observing oneself in a funhouse mirror.
The temporary exhibit marks the first comprehensive survey of Austrian artist Franz West's work in the United States. The exhibit organizes 117 works chronologically, demonstrating the evolution of West's work, tastes and styles over the past three decades.
West is well known for rejecting the typical museum-going experience. His work consciously tries to break the barrier between the artist and the viewer by creating work that is interactive and engaging, thereby making the viewer a part of the art. His work is also demonstratively colorful and playful, exploring a variety of sizes, color palates and media; the playfulness acts as an attempt to make sculpture a social experience. This exhibit is marked by the playground-like quality that permeates West's body of work.
The exhibit immediately creates an impression, beginning with one of West's more recent sculptures, "The Ego and the Id," which consists of two separate sculptures of enormous intertwining metal bands, standing 30 feet tall and painted in various bright colors. It is reminiscent of an enormous, surreal piece of playground equipment, an image enhanced by the group of children at the museum climbing along the swirling bands of layered metal. Initially these enormous and colorful structures are perplexing, as it is unclear whether they are meant to provoke laughter or a sort of mild disturbance and confusion. Standing in the center of the sculpture and looking up creates a sensation of standing in the middle of a Technicolor forest.
The next galleries are less dramatic in size but equally intriguing in content. Upon entering the room, viewers are immediately struck by a series of what looks like bars of metal with balls of white plaster attached to them, something that West describes as "adaptives." West invites the viewer to take these "adaptives" into a small cubicle elegantly lined with newspaper images. The viewer then sees himself in a mirrored wall holding a ridiculous cane of sorts while standing in a room covered in newspaper clippings, inspiring the creation of his own surrealist image. It feels sort of silly, a feeling akin to observing oneself in a funhouse mirror.
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Doerflinger Tuchman
posted 5/23/09 @ 12:32 AM EST
Yes i agree with you , and nice news thanks. This realy nice news , i watch for them .
Brozek Cliett
posted 6/20/09 @ 5:13 AM EST
A friend of mine directed me here and I wanted to comment and thank you for all your hard work.
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