Thomas Schütte: Hindsight

Lynne Cooke, Christine Mehring, Penelope Curtis

Thomas Schütte is considered one of the most important German artists of his generation, having studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Fritz Schwegler and Gerard Richter. Since the late 1970s Thomas Schütte has been working on his homonym series that examine moments of human isolation, vulnerability and hopelessness, not without irony. He became well known in the 1980s for his architectural models—designs that push to the extreme their ability to simplify and exaggerate, and which unintentionally provide viewers with a sense of protection and mental refuge. His works have at once a handcrafted and a utopian appearance to them. All of Schütte’s oeuvre is imbued with social and political questions, as well as his concern for the artist’s relevance to and place within society.