FRANZ WEST, Commemorative Postage Stamp, Österreichische Post AG, Austria, 2013

Issued 14 May 2013, less than a year after West's death and during the run of Franz West. Wo ist mein Achter?, the artist's first major posthumous exhibition, on view at mumok, Vienna, from 23 February to 26 May 2013. The image is Elfie Semotan's 1990 Vienna portrait of West, taken in his studio and later reused, twenty-three years on, as the source photograph for the stamp. Graphic design by Michael Rosenfeld after Semotan's photograph. Printed by Österreichische Staatsdruckerei GmbH; offset print, 70-cent denomination; edition of 400,000, issued in sheets of 50.

This copy is cancelled 14.5.13 — the day the stamp entered circulation. Not a first-day cover; the stamp has been detached from any envelope or support, so the precise circumstances of the cancellation can't be established. But the date is legible and exact, and it converts the object from a waiting thing into a used one at the same moment it was released.

A portrait becomes postage. Postage becomes used matter. Its monetary function ends; the object remains.

35 × 42 mm. Österreichische Post AG, Austria, 2013.

Condition: Good. Used; cancellation visible to recto, dated 14 May 2013. Minor handling and surface marks consistent with use; small marks to verso.