"West’s abstract, painted-aluminum sculpture—successors to his coarse but fragile, galumphing forms in papier-mâché—may be the most energetic and affable art for public spaces since Alexander Calder. Made of overlapping, welded patches, and coated in shiny, chipper single colors, the works suggest children’s Play-Doh inspirations, with slightly naughty scatological nuances."
Executed in 2007, Cool Book is an example of Franz West’s seating sculptures which form part of the homonymous series, of which one work is held in the permanent collects ion of the Tate in London. With its bright and rich hues, the present work evokes feelings of positivity that encourages the viewer to interact with the work. For the artist, colour signifies “saying yes to life. That is very important because, when I started, my things were saying no to all the dictates from above. Now that’s changed” (Franz West cited in: Neal Benezra, Brice Curiger and Robert Fleck, Ed., Franz West, London 1999, pp. 12-13). Like many of his sculptures, the present work evokes images of the human form. West is inspired by the anonymous, everyday body and often finds inspiration in the forms found there. In the title Cool Book there is a play of words, as the artist does not literally refer to books but to the Italian expression for anus, embodied by the bright pink donut form. Furthermore, the artist designs his sculptures to encourage public interaction, in this case inviting the viewer to sit on it, believing that such an interaction will activate his work and release its performative potential. To this end, West goes beyond optical stimulants and focuses on the tactility of his works, enticing the viewer with the crinkle of the aluminum, almost begging the viewer to be touched.
“Throughout his career, West has challenged traditional notions of sculpture. “His sculptures avoid all the qualities required of ‘serious’ twentieth-century sculpture, and yet, at the same t.mes , they remain recognizable as sculptures. They are impressive in their potential to express aspects of the physic…and the corporeal, and are characterised by their intense tactility. West’s works have almost nothing to do with the smooth, well-measured, often geometric forms that make up the vocabulary of high modern sculpture.”
West’s sculptures follow in the tradition of French Art Informel movement of the 1940s and 1950s and are largely influenced by the ritualistic performances of the Viennese Actionists in the 1960s and 1970s. At once light-hearted and deeply philosophical, West’s oeuvre redefined sculpture for the modern age.