Franz West and Vienna

To mark what would have been Franz West’s 80th birthday on 16 February 2027, the Albertina Modern and the Wien Museum will present two exhibitions devoted to the artist, opening in 2026.

Franz West (1947–2012) gained international recognition during his lifetime. His often polarizing oeuvre was exhibited widely from Vienna to New York and was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2011.

The exhibition at the Wien Museum focuses on Vienna, West’s hometown, which both inspired and unsettled him. He treated the city not merely as a backdrop but as material. References to postwar architecture, Viennese Modernism, and figures such as Freud and Wittgenstein run throughout his work. The presentation centers on the formative period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, bringing together well-known and lesser-known works within their biographical context.

Among the key works is Quote (1985), which conceals West’s childhood bed from the Karl-Marx-Hof beneath sheets of tin foil. In parallel, the Atelier Franz West in Vienna’s 3rd district—his last studio from 1996 to 2012—will open to the public. A 1:10 scale model of the Parapavilion Extroversion (Venice Biennale 2011), modeled on the studio’s kitchen, will also be shown at the Wien Museum.