Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte - Drawings

It is not only since 2005, when he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, that Thomas Schütte has been recognised as one of the most important contemporary German artists. In fact, his multi-layered work has been the subject of great interest worldwide since his graduation from Gerhard Richter's academy class in Düsseldorf. This may be due to the surprising way in which he uses, applies and combines the different media of sculpture, installation, photography, drawing, watercolour and even etching, but it could also have something to do with his artistic approach. As he says in an interview about watercolour flower motifs: "Painting flowers - you have to have done it! It's such a joy. It's especially fun when you're alone with it, it's like a guitar solo. Mum is happy, the children are happy, everyone is happy. You can write something on it like 'surrender'. Who surrenders now? The flower or me or me in front of the flower or me in front of the drawing? These are really exciting questions to ask yourself. After three hours, you have fifteen watercolours lying there, and once again you haven't thrown up, you've excelled. Flowers are totally grateful because they always tell you something. You can say a lot through a flower. They are mostly love songs. It has a song structure because it lasts exactly three minutes. That's not unimportant. It has to be fresh and it has to come across."

Exhibitions:
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 11/3-30/4/2006
De Pont Stichting voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Tillburg, 20/5-10/9/2006
Neues Museum, Nuremberg, 20/10/2006-21/1/2007