Thomas Schütte

Kat. Kunsthalle Baden-Baden

Exhibition catalogue, edited by Matthias Winzen
texts (German/English) by Melitta Kliege, Barbara Wagner and Matthias Winzen
240 p with 180 coloured illustrations
270 x 200 mm, hardcover

ISBN 978-3-936859-36-2

48,00 €

Thomas Schütte – Drawings

Thomas Schütte is regarded as one of the most important contemporary German painters, not merely since he received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennial 2005. In truth, ever since graduating from Gerhard Richter’s class at the Dusseldorf Academy, both he and his multi-facetted work have enjoyed worldwide acclaim. That might have something to do with the surprising way he uses and combines different media, such as sculpture, installation, photography, drawing, water colour and engraving, but it could also be to do with his artistic point of view. On the subject of flower motifs in water colour, he explains: »Painting flowers—you’ve got to have had a go at that! It’s so enjoyable. Above all, it’s enjoyable when you’re left alone with it, rather like a guitar solo. Mothers, kids, everybody enjoys it. You can write the word ›capitulation‹ against it. But who is capitulating here? The flower or me? Or me in front of the flower? It’s a really interesting question to ask oneself here. After three hours you have fifteen water colours in front of you and you still haven’t spewed up every last drop, but rather you’ve drawn yourself dry. Flowers are always grateful, because they are always telling you something. They’re mostly  love songs. It has the structure of a song because it lasts for about three minutes. That’s not unimportant. It has to be fresh and it has to get itself 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, Nürnberg, 20/10/2006–21/1/2007