In 1995 the Austrian Franz West transformed the terraces of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles into a glorious salon, with ranks of metal sofas draped with bright African fabrics: a new kind of public art for weary museum visitors. Drawing inspiration from the history of art (reclining icons such as Manet´s Olympia), psychoanalysis (Freud´s sofa in West´s native Vienna) and a socially interactive type of art, his work is at once both personal and public. He has gained particular recognition for incorporating the bodies of his spectators into his sculpture, producing oddly-hued forms called Passstücke (´adaptives´) -plaster sculptures designed to be worn, and which contort the wearer into bizarre positions. Packed with wondeful photographs, this book is an indispensable guide to the diverse, allusive and witty structures, collages and installations of this important and prolific artist.
