This Thomas Schütte show presented by the Museo Reina Sofía is the most comprehensive retrospective of this artist?s work ever organised in Europe and offers visitors a unique and detailed insight into the constant innovations that have characterised his evolution over the last 30 years. The works on display include installations, watercolours, etchings, photographs and architectural models, as well as specimens from his major sculptural groups, such as the ?Women? and ?Dogs? series. Thomas Schütte is one of the most important German artists of his generation. His works have a handcrafted yet simultaneously utopian appearance. Schütte?s entire oeuvre is steeped in social and political issues, as well as a preoccupation with the relevance and status of the artist in society. Schütte eradicates the weight of history from his intense sculptures through the use of striking, mischievous and often ironic titles. He uses traditional sculptural genres such as reclining female figures and commemorative portrait busts, as well as monumental and memorial genres, but with highly unconventional results. His sculptural groups evidence his delight in materials and his indefatigable fascination with the most diverse techniques.
Born in Oldenburg in northern Germany in 1954, Thomas Schütte studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1973 to 1981 (first under Fritz Schwegler and after 1975 under Gerhard Richter). Since his first solo show in 1979, Schütte?s career has been amply documented in numerous exhibitions. Among the most important exhibitions of his work were those held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1998, the Dia Art Foundation, New York, in 1998-99, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich, in 2009. His work was included in Documenta 8, 9 and 10 (1987, 1992 and 1997, respectively), the 55th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh (2008) and the Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1987 and 1997. He currently lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Curated by Lynne Cooke
17 Februar - 17 May 2010
Place: Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES)
<cite>www.museoreinasofia.es</cite>
