Thomas Schütte (born 16 November 1954) is a German contemporary artist. He sculpts, creates architectural designs, and draws. He lives and works in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

Education

From 1973 to 1981 Schütte studied art at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová ...

alongside

Katharina Fritsch Katharina Fritsch (born 14 February 1956) is a German sculptor."Katharina Fritsch: Arti ...

under

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Germa ...

Fritz Schwegler Fritz Schwegler (7 May 1935 – 3 June 2014) was a German painter, graphic artist, sculptor and musician. Life and work Born in the Swabian town of Breech near Göppingen, Schwegler was first apprenticed as a joiner to his father. He then travele ...

, Daniel Buren and

Benjamin Buchloh Benjamin Heinz-Dieter Buchloh (born November 15, 1941) is a German art historian. Between 2005 and 2021 he was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art in the History of Art and Architecture department at Harvard University. Education and c ...

Exhibitions

Schütte had his first US solo show in New York at Marian Goodman Gallery in 1989. In 2007 he made ''Model for a Hotel'', an architectural model of a 21-storey building made from horizontal panes of yellow, blue and red glass and weighing more than eight tonnes, for the

Fourth Plinth The Fourth plinth is the northwest plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London. It was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, but remained bare due to insufficient funds. For over 150 years the fate of the plinth was d ...

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

. Schütte had one-man shows at venues including the

Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

, London (2012);

Kunstmuseum Winterthur The Kunst Museum Winterthur (English: The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art - ...

, Winterthur, Switzerland (2003) (later travelled to the

Museum of Grenoble The Museum of Grenoble (french: Musée de Grenoble) is a municipal museum of Fine Arts and antiquities in the city of Grenoble in the Isère region of France. Located on the left bank of the Isère River, place Lavalette, it is known both for it ...

and K21,

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...

, Düsseldorf);

Folkwang Museum Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and pat ...

, Essen (2002); Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2001); a survey in three parts at

Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumb ...

, New York (1998-2000);

Serralves Foundation Serralves is a cultural institution located in Porto, Portugal. It includes a Contemporary Art Museum, a Park, and a Villa, each one an example of contemporary architecture, Modernism, and Art Deco architecture. The Museum, designed by Álvar ...

, Portugal (1998); De Pont Foundation, Tilburg, (1998); Kunsthalle, Hamburg (1994); ARC Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1990); as well as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Eindhoven, (1990). His monumental sculpture "Vater Staat" was displayed at Kunsthalle Mainz,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 2013. Schütte participated in documenta in Kassel three times; in 2005, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

Collections

Schütte's work is held in the collections of the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...

, MoMA, the Berggruen Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Recognition

Schütte has received numerous awards, including the Kurt Schwitters Preis für Bildende Kunst der Niedersächsischen Sparkassenstiftung, 1998, and the Kunstpreis der Stadt Wolfsburg, Germany, 1996. In 2005, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

for his work in María de Corral's exhibition "The Experience of Art". He was awarded the Düsseldorf Prize in 2010, previously given to

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

Marlene Dumas Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African artist and painter currently based in the Netherlands. Life and work Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Kuils River in the Western Cape, where her father had ...

, and

Rosemarie Trockel Rosemarie Trockel (born 13 November 1952) is a German conceptual artist. She has made drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and installations, and has worked in mixed media. From 1985, she made pictures using knitting-machines. She is a pr ...

Art market

A cast aluminum sculpture by Schütte, ''Großer Geist No. 16'' (2002), an eight-foot-tall sculpture of a ghostly figure, sold for $4.1 million at

Phillips de Pury & Company Phillips, formerly known as Phillips the Auctioneers (briefly as Phillips de Pury), is a British auction house. It was founded in London in 1796, and has head offices in London and in New York City. It was owned by the Mercury Group, a Russian ...

in 2010. ''Großer Geist Nr. 6'' (1996), a bronze figure with green patina, fetched $5.3 million at Christie's New York in 2014.Thomas Schütte, ''Großer Geist Nr. 6'' (1996)
Christie's New York, 12 May 2014.

References

External links

Thomas Schütte on Artcyclopedia

Thomas Schütte: Faces & Figures
exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries 2012 * Quinn Latimer (October 2009)
Thomas Schütte, Haus der Kunst
''Frieze Magazine'', Issue 26.
Thomas Schütte, ''Luise'' (1996)
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Thomas Schütte, ''Die Fremden (The Strangers)'' (1992)
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schutte, Thomas German sculptors German male sculptors 1954 births Living people Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni German contemporary artists People from Oldenburg (city)