Thomas Schütte

The work of Thomas Schütte (born 1954 in Oldenburg, lives and works in Düsseldorf) is characterized by the use of heterogeneous media and has included installation, construction, sculpture, architectural models, painting, drawings, graphic works and watercolors. His exploration of the role of the sculptor has from the beginning been marked by virtuosity, diverse and thoughtful strategies, experimentation with scale, material, genre, and an independence of form. From early architectural models and theatrical constructions to houses and utilitarian design; from bunkers and hypothetical memorials to ironic monuments; from early figures, heads and vessels to fantasy action figures; and from ceramic 'sketches' to bronze and steel Frauen, Schütte's body of work has embraced the symbolic, the memorial, the ironic, the functional, and the realm of social commentary. The object shown here derives from a group of wood works, new proposals for living, shown at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York in May/June 2005. The series of scale-model sculptural houses and works for an individually useable architecture - namely furniture - continues the trajectory of concrete designs for living and practical use-value in Schütte's work that began with such earlier models as Westkunst, 1981, and was seen in subsequent works from 1982 to 1989.