Franz West: Sisyphos Sculptures

Three large papier-mâché sculptures by Franz West, from the Sisyphos series (2002).

Throughout his career, West manipulated everyday materials and imagery in order to examine art’s relation to life and collective experience. From collages and interactive sculptures to tables, seating, and large abstract forms, his works focus on the tensions between public and private, considering the controlled behaviours and impulsive actions of the body.

Despite their lighthearted ambiguity, West’s sculptures often flirt with philosophical archetypes, alluding to common myths, linguistic theories, and conceptual paradoxes. The Sisyphossculptures are amorphous masses of papier-mâché, Styrofoam, and cardboard expressively painted with lacquer and acrylic. They are named after the mythical first king of Ephyra, who deceived and plotted against others in order to advance his own power and prestige. Zeus punished Sisyphos for his hubris by forcing him to repeatedly roll a heavy boulder up a steep hill, only to have the rock tumble back down just as he reached the top. This eternal burden, West implies, is echoed in the unrelenting frustration of the creative process, the Sisyphean struggle inherent to all artistic pursuits.

Like archaeological specimens, the sculptures are mottled, earthy fragments, coagulating beneath layers of viscous paint. Fleshy splotches overlap in Sisyphos V (2002), with drip patterns moving upward against gravity; Sisyphos IV (2002), encrusted with naturalistic gray and terra-cotta tones, balances atop several cardboard tubes; and yellow and blue splatters giveSisyphos VIII (2002) a sense of forward momentum, intensified by the wide, wheel-like cylinder and wooden scraps wedged in at its base.