Working with materials ranging from papier mâché, found furniture, fabric, and welded metal to aluminium and painted surfaces, West produced works that span intimate objects and monumental outdoor sculptures. His early collages and paintings show the influence of Pop Art, while later works developed into brightly coloured, open-form structures and organic, bodily forms. Over more than three decades, West exhibited extensively in museums and galleries worldwide and was a regular participant in major international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale and Documenta. West’s work gained great acclaim in the 1980s, with solo exhibitions being held at the Neue Galerie, Austria and Wiener Secession, Vienna (1986), and his first exhibition in the US in 1989 at the Institute for Contemporary Art, P.S.1, New York.

 

Opening November 6, 2026 Albertina Museum in Vienna will devote a retrospective to Franz West (1947–2012) in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday. Significant recent exhibitions include Franz West, Tate Modern, London, UK (2019) Franz West, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2018); Franz West: Wo ist mein Achter? (Where Is My Eight?), The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK (2013); Franz West: To Build a House You Start with the Roof, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA (2009); travelled from Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA (2008); Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2008).

 

West’s work is held in major public collections internationally, including the Albertina Museum, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; mumok, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, among many others.