Franz West and Vienna

The Austrian artist Franz West achieved international renown during his lifetime. His multifaceted and at times polarizing oeuvre was presented extensively in numerous exhibitions from Vienna to New York and was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2011.

On February 16, 2027, Franz West would have turned 80. To mark this anniversary, the Albertina Modern and the Wien Museum are dedicating two solo exhibitions to the artist, opening jointly in 2026.

At the Wien Museum, Franz West’s hometown takes center stage. Vienna inspired and unsettled the artist in equal measure. He understood the city not merely as a stage, but as material. From the color tones of postwar façades and references to Viennese Modernism to ironic reflections on Freud, Wittgenstein, and the hermetic Viennese art scene, traces of the city’s history run throughout his work.

The exhibition focuses on the artistically formative period from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Well-known works are presented alongside lesser-known pieces and linked with biographical and historical contexts, offering new—and often amusing—insights into Franz West’s art. One of the exhibition’s key works, Quote (1985), conceals West’s childhood bed from the Karl-Marx-Hof beneath sheets of tin foil. The children’s wallpaper from the bedroom of his half-brother Otto Kobalek reappears in an early collage.

Parallel to the exhibition at the Wien Museum, the Atelier Franz West in Vienna’s 3rd district opens its doors. It was West's last studio from 1996 to 2012. The artworks by West and his companions that the artist had arranged in the kitchen have been reinstalled to mark the anniversary year. That same kitchen served as the model for the so-called Parapavilion Extroversion, installed at the Venice Biennale in 2011. A 1:10 scale model of Extroversion will be on view at the Wien Museum.