We are pleased to announce the placement of "Untitled" (2012) by Franz West into an esteemed private collection.
Among the last works conceived by Franz West (1947–2012) before his death, this monumental lacquered aluminum sculpture, comprising five interlocking parts and measuring 560 × 430 × 340 cm, belongs to the large-scale series West developed after 2000, when the medium came to define his most ambitious public and institutional vision. First exhibited in the major retrospective "Wo ist mein Achter?" at Mumok — Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and MMK — Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2013), the work stands as one of the defining statements of his late career.
Cast in a soft candy blue, the sculpture's looping, undulating form functions simultaneously as autonomous artwork and civic infrastructure: its tubular curves create spaces that accommodate the body — leaning, reclining, sitting in conversation — translating the democratic spirit of Viennese public seating into the language of monumental sculpture. The visible seams and joins in the aluminium panels are deliberate, emphasizing process, imperfection, and the participatory openness that characterized West's practice from the earliest "Passstücke" onward.
West described his final period as a search for "Elysium": "I am slowly becoming indifferent towards it and am trying to materialize the foretaste of Elysium that awaits me in my art." The candy blue of the present work gives that aspiration its most concentrated form. Awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 54th Biennale di Venezia in 2011, West's work is held by the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, Tate, the Albertina, the Walker Art Center, and numerous other major institutions worldwide.
We are honored that this landmark work, one of the defining sculptural statements of West's late career, has entered a distinguished collection worthy of its scale and ambition. This acquisition was negotiated and finalized by Peder Lund Art Advisory Associates.