559 - Thomas Schütte (born 1954 in Oldenburg)

Thomas Schütte (born 1954 in Oldenburg) Woodcuts Portfolio containing 9 color woodcuts on paper, each with metal eyelets for hanging. 2011. Approx. 226.5 x 150 cm (sheet size approx. 253 x 162 cm). One of 12 numbered copies. Each signed and dated lower right. Published by the artist, Hamburg. Listed on the artist’s website. • Nine large-format color woodcuts with a striking chromatic and tactile presence • Architecture as a three-dimensional conceptual model, a medium for social criticism and political commentary • One copy of the “Woodcuts” is in the collection of MoMA, New York; K 21 in Düsseldorf is currently presenting the comprehensive retrospective “Thomas Schütte” The “Woodcuts” hold special significance in Thomas Schütte’s body of work. With monumental grandeur, these large-format color woodcuts address a central concern of the artist. Schütte understands architecture not merely as the practical engineering of real buildings, but as an extended sculpture, a three-dimensional conceptual model, and a medium for social criticism and political commentary. For over 30 years, Thomas Schütte has been exploring architecture in public spaces alongside his internationally renowned sculptural work. He critically engages with prevailing trends in architecture, as well as the redundant formal language and materiality of details, through small-scale, meticulously crafted models. He engages with archetypes of public buildings or develops ingenious dwellings for the individual. His models are often a bitter commentary on our times, artistically and politically explosive. Whether he elevates his wooden models to the status of sculptures by placing them on pedestals or builds them on a 1:1 scale to make them accessible to the public, Thomas Schütte uses them to sharpen our perception. A one-person vacation home or his design for a sculpture hall intended to showcase his own work—for Schütte, these architectural structures are sociopolitical models for participation and dignity. By satirizing state and cultural architecture or exposing it in its sterile form, he critiques political and bureaucratic systems. All these ideas underlie the scaled-up presentation of the motifs in the “Woodcuts.” With striking colors and enhanced by the rich surface texture of the woodcut plates, architecture is presented here in a set-piece, exemplary manner: a fireplace, a portal, a staircase, a Romanesque double window. Modular elements for conceiving a fantastical castle that demonstrates power but can equally serve as a prison. Exhibition: Best Regards, Thomas Schütte, me Collectors Room Berlin, 2013/2014. Provenance: Peter Freeman, Inc., New York; Olbricht Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia, acquired from the aforementioned in 2013. Taxation: subject to differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme).