Contemporary Artists: Franz West

Part of the Contemporary Artists series.

In 1992 the public square behind the Museum Fridericianum at Documenta IX, Kassel, was transformed into a glorious salon, with ranks of metal sofas draped with rugs and fabric: a new kind of public art for weary exhibition visitors. Combining the history of art (reclining icons such as Manet's 'Olympia', or Goya's 'La Maja Desnuda'), with Freud's celebrated couch in the artist's native Vienna, and with a socially interactive type of art, this installation - like Franz West's other works - evoke at once the personal and the public.

Emerging from the Aktionism generation of 1960s Viennese artists who used their own bodies in their art, West is an internationally renowned Austrian artist who often incorporates the bodies of his spectators into his sculpture. West's works often quite literally illustrate the viewer's involvement in contemporary art, whilst questioning the "service" an artist ought to provide for the art-loving public. As one of Europe's best-known sculptors, West is regularly invited to such major international art surveys as Skulptur Projekte in Munster and Documenta; he has exhibited widely all over the world.

Fleck surveys West's work and discusses the influence of such thinkers as Freud and Wittgenstein. Curiger interviews the artist seated in one of West's furniture installations; and Benezra concentrates on West's work 'Etude de couleur', 1991, an important signpost for West's oeuvre of the past decade. West's writings include a sculpture/text published here for the first time.

'Contemporary Artists' is a series of authoritative and highly illustrated studies of important artists of the late 20th century. Each title offers a comprehensive survey of individual artists' works. Different genres of art writing are contributed by an international spectrum of authors who are leading figures in their fields, ranging from art history and criticism to philosophy, cultural theory and fiction. Each study provides incisive analyses and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration. These are essential source books for everyone concerned with art today.