{"product_id":"9788492480807","title":"Franz West: White Elephant","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the mid-1960s, Franz West (born 1947) has been finding new ways to balance his art on the line between beauty and ugliness. At the age of 14, West—living in bombed-out, post-Nazi Vienna—attended an event organized by the Viennese Actionists, at which Hermann Nitsch smashed a lamb cadaver against the wall of a basement room in a tenement building: \"it was incredibly shocking and really depressing,\" West said. His own art over the past four decades has eschewed such nihilism: his \u003ci\u003eAdaptives\u003c\/i\u003e, which he has described as \"neuroses made material\" (with a nod to Darwin as well), are sculptural objects for viewers to engage physically, using them as ungainly temporary prostheses, appliances, accessories, and instructional tools. \u003ci\u003eWhite Elephant\u003c\/i\u003e documents these, as well as West's important works of furniture and collage, and his marvelously awkward sculptures, which seem lumpily homely and unbalanced, or gangly and hopeful as a blemished teen.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RM","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47053594493168,"sku":"9788492480807","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9788492480807_p0.jpg?v=1763748931","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9788492480807","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}