Dimensions
250 x 290 x 18mm
Part of the Contemporary Artists series.
Thomas Schutte is one of the most important German artists working in the late 20th century. His installations, sculptures, models, drawings and watercolours can take many, often contradictory guises. Schutte's art looks utilitarian, offering shelter, sustenance and companionship, yet delivers false promises and alien worlds: a museum that incinerates art; potatoes made of bronze; or the artist's own "audience", consisting of wooden stand-ins or metallic figures assembled before his work.
Like Gulliver wandering through a Swiftian world of shifting scales, the viewer is immersed in a series of "theatrum mundi", poetic yet dysfunctional utopias which alternate between the private and the public, the romantic and the sceptical. The artist deploys a vivid spectrum of colours and a range of materials to revision the basic constituents - natural, cultural and political - of everyday life whilst exploring fundamental questions about the artist and society.
Most notable among his many solo exhibitions which have been presented in kunsthalles and museums across Europe is the survey presented in 1998 by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, De Pont Foundation in Tilburg and Fundacao de Serralves in Porto. His permanent public commissions can be found in Antwerp, Munster, Kassel and Neuengamme.
Heynen charts a topography of media and subject matter in the artist's work; and Lingwood speaks with the artist about the development of his practice and his relationship to European sculptural traditions in a German context. Vettese focuses on the artist's contribution to Skulptur Projekte Munster in 1987, 'Kirschensaule' ('Cherry Column'). Schutte's own writings are represented by a bedtime story, a fantastical allegory of the art world, and its unexpected sequel.
'Contemporary Artists' is a series of authoritative and highly illustrated studies of important artists of the late 20th century. Each title offers a comprehensive survey of individual artists' works. Different genres of art writing are contributed by an international spectrum of authors who are leading figures in their fields, ranging from art history and criticism to philosophy, cultural theory and fiction. Each study provides incisive analyses and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration. These are essential source books for everyone concerned with art today.
