Thomas Schütte

The Düsseldorf-based sculptor, draftsman, model maker, and sometime architect Thomas Schütte works in scales ranging from the minuscule to the monumental. His art addresses the mechanisms of power, the fall of empire, and end-of-world narratives generated by a culture of societal alienation. Over the past five decades, Schütte’s work has continued its powerful critique of the Western world and today takes on renewed urgency.

Published in conjunction with the first museum survey of the artist’s work in the United States in over 20 years, Thomas Schütte presents a holistic overview of his career from 1975 to the present. Taking aesthetics, form, and history as its focus, the publication featuring sculptures, drawings, prints, and experiments in architecture, alongside revelatory archival materials that have never been published before. Essays by Paulina Pobocha, Jennifer Allen, and André Rottmann provide historical and theoretical pathways into the complexity of Schutte’s oeuvre, and contributions by artists Marlene Dumas and Charles Ray reflect on Schutte’s significance through close readings of his work.