Franz West

Coming of age in the era of punk, radicalism and artistic revolution, Franz West was a Renaissance Man who drew inspiration from both contemporary and classical culture. Equally at home in discussing medieval animism as he was in debating theories of Dostoevsky and Wittgenstein, West demonstrated a thirst for knowledge that went beyond the cultural trends of his era. His insatiable yearning for new ideas is reflected in the diversity of his practice, which covers mediums ranging from drawing to furniture, from collage to performance. The present group of pieces from the Brant collection reflect the versatility of his dynamic practice. West started producing his celebrated Dokustuhl chairs in the late 1990s. Most of them were executed with colorful printed fabrics with African patterns, each example uniquely created in form and color, in Franz's effort to shift his work's focus toward non-Western visual cultures. Sinnlos ("senseless"), a metal coat rack, complements the set of chairs in its functional artistry and in its colorful treatment, further emphasizing West's idea of furniture as functional art, "adapted for the human body at rest."