Thomas Schutte Livres

This text is the official catalogue for the first solo exhibition of German artist Thomas Schutte's work in London, presented at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in January 1998 and touring to the Du Pont Foundation, Tilburg, Netherlands and the Museum of Modern Art in Oporto, Portugal.

The modernist poems of Robert Walser alongside the stunning watercolors of Thomas Schütte Pairing a selection of recent watercolors from 2011 and 2012 by Thomas Schütte with a selection of previously unpublished poems by Robert Walser, written between 1924 and 1933, this book is a deeply personal exploration of our everyday selves, choreographed by one of the greatest living artists. This book is dedicated by the artist to the gallerist Donald Young, who invited the artist to participate in an exhibition dedicated to Walser in Chicago in 2012. Published in original German with new English translations of each poem and with an introduction by Dr. Reto Sorg, director of the Robert Walser Archives.

Thomas Schütte is Germany’s most important sculptor and one of the most significant artists working today. He works figuratively as a sculptor and abstractly as a constructor of models. His statues are in the tradition of public sculpture. However, he does not depict heroes, warriors, or kings, but rather figures undergoing hardship, waiting, possessing resistant dignity and mystery. Text: Thomas D. Trummer, Dieter Schwarz, Julia Wallner