franz west’s ‘gekröse’ image © designboom

austrian artist franz west’s ‘gekröse’ (2011) – is his biggest piece to date and sold on the first day of the fair for a seven-figure sum, according to jona lueddeckens from the gagosian gallery.

‘gekröse’ is a leviathan of a sculpture, simultaneously monumental yet playful; imposing in scale yet whimsical in its cheery rose hue and dynamic sense of movement. the complexly intertwining pink coils are reminiscent of any number of diverse forms, perhaps a gargantuan primordial cephalopod or an enlarged model of the human digestive tract. often west designs sculptures as functional, furniture-like sites of social interaction. because this is the largest aluminum sculpture that he has created to date, visitors who are accustomed to relating to franz west’s artworks may be challenged by this sculpture that represents a unique development within his oeuvre.

franz west: gekröse sculpture at art basel 2012 image © designboom

franz west: gekröse sculpture at art basel 2012 image © designboom

franz west: gekröse sculpture at art basel 2012 image © designboom

franz west: gekröse sculpture at art basel 2012 image © designboom

franz west began his career in mid-1960s vienna when actionism was in full swing. his earliest works were a reaction to this movement in which artists engaged in displays of radical public behavior and physical endurance meant to shake up art-world passivity. in the early 1970s, west began making a series of small, portable sculptures called passstuecke (adaptives), awkward-looking plaster objects that he only considered completed as artworks when the viewer physically interacted with them. in many ways, his large-scale aluminum sculptures are simply overgrown versions of the passstuecke.