30 - Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte Joker Poker 1981/1982/1984 Installation: wood elements, partly painted, gloss paint on paper on canvas, 10 sheets mixed media on paper Wood elements together approx. 215 x 215 x 140 cm. Painting 214 x 158 cm. 10 sheets of mixed media each 29.5 x 21 cm. Installation size variable. Signed and titled 'Th. Schütte Joker-Poker' on a wood element. Some paper works dated '1981' or '1982', some variously inscribed. - Traces of studio and minor traces of age. Provenance Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft; on loan to the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf Literature Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH (ed.), Thomas Schütte, Big Buildings, Modelle und Ansichten, 1980-2010, exhib.cat., Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bunderepublik Deutschland, Bonn 2010, p.80/81 with col.illus. In Thomas Schütte’s multi-part installation ‘Joker Poker’ from 1984, a ramp leads from the floor up to a platform which rests on nine black cubes. On this stage-like surface, two reddish-brown panels stand at an angle to each other, their shape reminiscent of commemorative plaques or portals. What at first glance appears to be heavy and permanent is actually relatively light: the panels are made of wood and supported by slanted wooden struts, which further emphasises their model-like character. Both are also unmarked. These blank panels are thus still awaiting their final purpose, as long as the words that would give them their impact remain unwritten. Hanging on the wall is a playing card - the Three of Diamonds - on which two mirror-image spirals wind their way. They are reminiscent of the volutes on Ionic capitals, yet look as if they were scribbled by hand. The title refers to a variation of poker in which a joker serves as a wild card that can replace any card. In Schütte’s work, motifs recur from one piece to the next. Rainald Schumacher illustrates this with the architectural designs for ‘Hauptstadt II’ (1981–1984), Schütte’s contribution to the 1984 Düsseldorf exhibition ‘von hier aus’: “The building designs, which could have originated from a totalitarian, megalomaniacal concept for a capital city, were later mounted on scaled-down support surfaces and reappear in various works. The enormous commemorative plaque appears in the work ‘Sicherheit’ (1981) and in ‘Joker Poker’ (1984). […] This continuity in motifs and themes is another important underlying structure of the entire body of work” (Rainald Schumacher, Modell für eine bessere Welt, Thomas Schütte und die Kunst des Bauens, in: Bundeskunsthalle (ed.), Thomas Schütte, Big Buildings, Modelle und Ansichten 1980–2010, exhib.cat., Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn 2010, p.15). Ten drawings from 1981 and 1982 bring this journey to life. The title of the installation is already evident on the sheet titled ‘Joker/Poker’. Others are titled ‘Power’, ‘Propaganda’, ‘Security’, or ‘Peace’. These are catchphrases from a time when, following NATO’s Double-Track Decision, there was controversy over rearmament and deterrence. Cube, slab, ramp: This is the vocabulary of Minimal Art, assembled from workshop materials. Schütte had been introduced to Minimal and Conceptual art at the Konrad Fischer Gallery, among other places. He countered their tautological precision with working by hand. (Cf. ibid., pp.14–15) “Surprisingly,” writes Robert Fleck about the artist, “he repeatedly manages to avoid the pitfall of heavy monumentality and to strike a balance between seemingly contradictory elements. He masterfully navigates the interplay between large scale and lightness, between closed and open forms, and between clear formal composition and fragile openness.” (Robert Fleck, Foreword in: Thomas Schütte, Big Buildings, op. cit., p.8)