Thomas Schütte

by Heynen, Julian; Lingwood, James; Vettese, Angela

• ISBN13: 9780714837147
• ISBN10: 0714837148
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

Thomas Sch++tte is a catalog of works by this contemporary German artist. Sch++tte studied under Gerhard Richter, Benjamin Buchloh, and Bernd and Hilla Becher at the D++sseldorf Academy in the 1970s. He comes from that strong conceptual background, but as his career matured the emotional content of his work evolved and became much more potent. Sch++tte's work is incredibly eclectic: ceramic figures, architectural models, drawings, outdoor sculptures, photographs, and installations. A recent work, Big Spirits (1996), is a collection of larger-than-life-size aluminum figures that seem to be morphing before one's eyes. They are at once ghost, human, and machine. Also riveting is The Innocents (1994), a series of photographs of the heads of handmade figurines, and United Enemies, A Play in Ten Scenes (1993)--offset lithographs, also of figurines wrapped in Sch++tte's clothes. His watercolors are beautiful, ranging from drawings of fruit to portraits of women. Whatever the project, Sch++tte is tapped in to a particular humanity.Included in the book are essays by Julian Heynen and Angela Vettese, an interview with James Lingwood, and an essay by Roman philosopher Seneca, chosen by the artist. There is also a story by Sch++tte--printed in English for the first time. --Jennifer Cohen

Author Biography

Julian Heynen is Director of Exhibitions at the Krefeld Art Museums and presented Schütte's first museum show in 1986. Heynen writes extensively on modern and contemporary art.

James Lingwood is a writer and curator of Schütte's first survey exhibition in Britain. He is Co-Director of Artangel, London, and his many publications include The Epic and the Everyday (1994), Rachel Whiteread's House (Phaidon, 1995) and Juan Muñoz, Monologues and Dialogues (1996).

Angela Vettese is a Milan-based critic and curator. She is Professor of Art History at the Carrera Academy in Bergamo. Her many catalogue texts include Piero Manzoni (1994) and John Cage (1993), and she is the author of Capire l'artecontemporanea (1996).

Table of Contents

Interview James Lingwood in conversation with Thomas Schutte	6	(32)
Survey Our World	38	(80)
Julian Heynen
Focus Kirschensaule	118	(10)
Angela Vettese
Artist's Choice Seneca De Vita Beata, c.43 AD	128	(8)
Artist's Writings Bedtime Story No. 6, 1993	136	(8)
Thomas Schutte
Letter from Bilka, 1997	142	(2)
Chronology	144	(15)
Bibliography	159