FRANZ WEST
Franz West’s Les Pommes d’Adam takes its name from the Adam’s apple, a bump visible in front of the voicebox on some people’s throats. When the sculpture premiered in Paris’ Place Vendôme, the seat of French government, in 2007, however, the public interpreted the gathering of bubblegum pink sculptures in a slightly more provocative way, locating the reference lower on the male torso.
West would likely have reveled in the confusion, having once said, “it doesn’t matter what art looks like, but how it is used.” 1 These works purposefully breach the Wittgensteinian line between tool and work of art:2 For those who interact with West’s Paßstücke, “the experience of the work would not be purely or even primarily internal. Rather, it would be an unchoreographed dance without music.”3 Among his earliest works are the Paßstücke, or Adaptives, a series of small, portable plaster objects (exhibited at MASS MoCA in 2002), that are meant to be picked up and manipulated by the viewer. The objects’ use—and therefore meaning—changes for every participant according to how they choose to interact with the work. Some might be utilized as bookends or flower vases, while others may be displayed on sculptural plinths. Les Pommes d’Adam,
like West’s Paßstücke, is infused with humor and a particular delight in visual and linguistic puns. It pokes, provokes, and makes us reconsider our physical and psychological relationship to art.
Many of West’s large-scale sculptures are designed to be displayed in outdoor public settings, rather than inside conventional museum or gallery spaces. In its previous public presentation, Les Pommes d’Adam was installed in close proximity to the Vendôme Column, on top of which stands a statue of Napoléon Bonaparte in Roman garb. The Vendôme Column is covered in a spiraling bas-relief, depicting Napoleon’s victorious military campaigns. Reinforcing the message of conquest, the column itself was forged from the metal of cannons captured by French forces during the Battle of Austerlitz.
West’s presentation of Les Pommes d’Adam at the Place Vendôme engaged and perhaps parodied Napoleon’s column, prompting viewers to reinvestigate it and its role in the history of Paris and France. The idiomatic
Franz West, Les Pommes d’Adam, 2007. Epoxy, metal, paint and concrete. 4 parts, each approximately 25' tall. Place Vendôme, Paris, 2007.
expression “Napoleon Complex,” for example, takes on new meaning in light of the apocryphal tale of the etymology of the term “Adam’s apple.” According to the biblical passage, the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was an apple tree. When Eve gave Adam a piece of the tree’s forbidden fruit and he ate of it, a fragment became lodged in his throat. The Adam’s apple thus serves as a permanent reminder of the folly of seeking to acquire that which should remain unknown, or beyond one’s right. Likewise, with its monumental if not pretentious scale, Les Pommes d’Adam may offer a playful warning about the perils of ambition.
Franz West’s Les Pommes d’Adam (2007) is presented by the Hall Art Foundation.
1 “Franz West,” in Comic Abstraction: Image-Greaking, Image-Making, (New York: MoMA, 2007). http://www.moma. org/interactives/exhibitions/2007/comic_abstraction/flash.html/
2 Ludwig Wittgenstein was a German philosopher who posited that language’s meaning—and that of other objects—comes from use. According to Wittgenstein, any material object that is externally useful is classified as a tool, whereas the materials that make up an art object only have utility as they relate to one’s internal processes, such as thoughts and emotions.
2 Roxana Marcoci, Interview with Franz West in Comic Abstraction: Image-Greaking, Image-Making, (New York: MoMA, 2007). http://www.moma.org/interactives/ exhibitions/2007/comic_abstraction/flash.html/
Franz West (1947–2012) was born in Vienna, Austria, where he studied at the Academy of Applied Arts (1977–1982) under Bruno Gironcoli. His work has been exhibited at internationally-known venues including the Venice Biennale; documenta; Lincoln Center, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and can be found in public and private collections world-wide. West collaborated with many other artists throughout his career, including Michaelangelo Pistoletto and Mike Kelly.
The Hall Art Foundation makes available works of postwar and contemporary art from its collection and from the collection of Andrew and Christine Hall for the enjoyment and education of the public. In addition to the dedicated gallery space at MASS MoCA, the Hall Art Foundation operates its own two museums in Reading, Vermont and at Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg, situated near Hannover in Germany.
Franz West: Les Pommes d’Adam Open seasonally Spring–Fall