Franz West

West was born on 16 February 1947. His father was a coal dealer, his mother a dentist who took her son with her on art-viewing trips to Italy. West did not begin to study art seriously until he was 26, when, between 1977 and 1983, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Bruno Gironcoli.

Around 1980 West started to create "plaster objects, usually a few feet long, meant to be placed over the face, worn around the waist or held in the crook of the neck. Although they suggest masks and props for the commedia dell'arte, their shapes are usually ambiguous: no matter how figurative and sexual Mr. West's objects may be, they remain abstract. The pieces can be worn on the street or carried like a partner in an enraptured solipsistic dance. They leave the wearer looking both protected and trapped." His friend Reinhard Priessnitz called these "Passstücke", which was rendered into English as "Fitting pieces"; but West came to prefer another translation, "Adaptives".

The non-profit Franz West Archive was established by West, Eva Badura-Triska and others in 1997. In 2012, just days before he died, West signed paperwork authorising the formation of the Franz West Private Foundation which also operated the Franz West Werknutzungs GmbH; after a five-year battle over the artist's estate, however, the Regional Court for Civil Law of Vienna concluded in 2017 that the foundation was created without a proper contract. The archive had previously sued the private foundation, as well as Gagosian Gallery and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, for selling the artist's furniture and photographs, claiming it owns the sole license for those works. In 2016, the archive sought to merge with the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok).

Throughout his career, West engaged in collaborations with other artists, such as conceptual Artist Bernhard Cella, conceptual artist Douglas Gordon, musician Fred Jellinek, furniture maker Mathis Esterhazy, and the artist Tamuna Sirbiladze (West's widow). For another exhibition in 2012, West collaborated with fellow artist Anselm Reyle on a series of furniture sculptures.

West was represented by Gagosian Gallery, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, until his death in 2012. Previously, David Zwirner had represented West in the US until 2001. At Frieze Art Fair in 2011, West curated the Gagosian Gallery's booth. A portrait of West made by Rudolf Stingel sold for a price of more than $500,000. West's estate continues to be represented by Gagosian Gallery.