Figurative sculptures from a retrospective at MOMA, NY in 2024/2025 of the work of Thomas Schütte, German born 1954

 

 

Trained at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf  between 1973 and 1981, it is often said that, after early experimentation with the minimalism and conceptualism which were the North American vogue during his student period, the artist went on to move away from both. 

 

He did not reject them as much as he has adopted – slowly with experimentation – the conventions of any style, including representation and figuration, which suits his subject matter.

 

 

 

Man in Mud (Model 1:10), 2009, patinated bronze on steel pedestal.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Artist loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

 

One of at least 20 representations of this motif  It began, the artist said, when he first tried to sculpt a man standing.  He could not get the figure to stand up straight.  So he left it mired in the wax medium he was using (1982).

The figure has come to represent the ‘ordinary’ difficulties of building a path forward in a life; and human resilience.

 

 

As a result, the artist has a reputation for independence amounting to being a contrarian and, sometimes, cussed.  Certainly not classifiable. 

 

He has been quoted as saying that he wants to be “different, or on my own, or opposite.”

 

Schütte’s primary focus seems not to have been on developing expertise in a style(s) of art but on exploring a given subject: the human condition. He has used whatever style and materials suit the purposes of this large subject.

 

He believes that both figurative sculptures and architectural representations of our built environment evoke similar emotional and cultural responses.  He has created both.

 

The scale of  Schütte’s work runs from large public sculptures to architectural models which are small and large; to small drawings and paintings and prints; to small sculptures.

 

The media he uses are pencil and watercolour, wax, bronze, steel,  ceramic, wood, and Murano glass.

 

In some of his figurative work, he approaches an archetypal representation of human experience by merging individual histories into the representation of a collective experience. 

He distills collective memory in the pose of an individual figure. 

 

 

 

 

Woman’s Head (Imploded), 2020, glazed ceramic and steel on steel pedestal.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Private loan to MOMA in 2024/25

 

 

 

The artist’s figurative sculpture brought to mind a phrase of James Baldwin: “Everyone you meet is you.” 

 

When you are with his figurative sculptures, you are not unhappy to be among all of us even if, in the real world, you turn yourself away  from or do not see certain of us.

 

Some of his sculptures carry the contradictory or ambiguous or near-inscrutable messages of human behaviour, attitudes and emotions.

 

But, despite the bafflement or delight or exasperation of professional art critics, you are grateful not to have to read long, dense, explanatory wall notes on what this art is.

 

This is the work of a man who  decided to adhere to no style and no school. 

 

He has used the history of our civilization(s) and his personal history and skills to produce a large body of work.  In this, he is questioning the way we live with each other.  Or sympathizing with it.  He is not shying away from the complexity of his source material and subject matter.  He is chipping  away.

 

Professional art critics have noted that the artist has exercised himself in so many styles across the totality of his work that he is also questioning – with apparent pessimism – the possible direction(s) in which the Western art tradition can evolve.  

 

The expert artisanship of this work, in no matter which medium, is wonderful.

 

These are some of the figural sculptures exhibited in this retrospective which also included drawings, paintings, prints, designs and models of architecture. 

 

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Alain Colas,  1989, clay, polystyrene, paint, foam, cardboard, wood, and wire on 2 pallettes. 

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Musee d’Arte della Svizerra Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland loan to MOMA in 2024/25

 

Alain Colas was a French sailor who was lost at sea during a trans-Atlantic race in 1978. 10 years later, at the invitation of the French Government, Schutte designed a figurative bust to be anchored like a buoy in the bay and to be submerged from time to time by the rising tide. 

This was rejected.  However, it set the attitude of the artist to monumental sculpture thereafter.

 

 

 

 

The Strangers, 1992, glazed ceramics and steel.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Two parts the artist, seven parts The Tate, London. On loan into MOMA, NY in 2024/25

 

At the time this was made, Germany had been recently unified. There was significant migration to Germany from peoples from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  They were escaping the consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union; and war.  These immigrants were blamed for a number of social ills and were subjected to Neo-Nazi attacks. 

Rejecting this hostility, the artist questioned what it is that makes a ‘German’: passport, blood, country of birth, language, mentality?

 

 

 

 

United Enemies, 1993, six pairs of clay figures under glass bell jars. 

Black Lemons, 1990 in glazed ceramic on the floor

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954.  Photo by James Estrin for the New York Times

 

Detail of United Enemies, 1993, clay figures under a bell jar

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Photo by James Estrin for the New York Times

 

Thomas Schütte was staying in Rome in 1992  during the exposure of a nation-wide political scandal  involving bribery called ‘Tangentopoli’.  More than half of the Italian legislature were indicted as a result of the related investigations.

Watching this lengthy unraveling, the artist began a series of small, handmade sculptures. He pressed brightly coloured FIMO modeling clay around little wooden dowels.  He knotted these together.  He shaped faces of angry, exasperated, befuddled old men.

Each couple is fated to live together, bearing everything in common and deeply affected by each other’s actions and emotions.  

These figures represent us.

 

 

 

 

Steel Woman No. 1, 1998; steel on steel table.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Promised gift to MOMA, NY

 

A work belonging to a large series called Frauen (Women).  This represents the changes in figurative traditions over time: a Picasso face, Walt Disney arms, a Matisse body and a picture-book breast.

 

 

 

 

Each of these 3  figures is called Large Spirit. Polished aluminum, 1996 and 1997.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954.  Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

These are in a series of such sculptures which also exist in small form.

It is not clear whether these 3 are in joy or lamentation.

 

 

 

 

Green Head, 1997, glazed ceramic and blanket on wood pedestal. 

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf loan in 2024/25 to MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Woman’s Head with Flower, 2006; aluminum and lacquer on steel pedestal.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Artist loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

 

 

 

 

 

Bronze Woman #17, patinated bronze on steel table, 2006.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. The Art Institute of Chicago loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

 

 

 

 

Vater State, 2010, patinated bronze.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

A tyrant with a fearsome scowl who, nevertheless, seems to have very slight substance underneath the clothes which bind him into armless immobility.

 

 

 

 

Krieger Warriors, 2012, charred wood with pigment and oil.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. MOMA, NY

These warriors have been compromised by the sculptor’s construction.

Their bodies are not in proportion. Their limbs display the disfiguration of wood burls as though these figures are under the stress which, ordinarily, cause burls to grow on trees.  The tops of their heads are screw top bottle lids as though they are dunces.

The figures represent the immoral pretensions of war. 

 

 

 

 

These are in a series named ‘Old Friend’; 2021,  ceramic on steel pedestals.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Artist loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25

 

 

 

 

 

Mother Earth, 2024; glazed ceramic on steel pedestal.

Thomas Schütte, German born 1954. Artist loan to MOMA, NY in 2024/25