"I try to see one thing from five different points of view and keep moving, working around a central point. But I don’t know what it is. As soon as you define it, it’s finished."
— Thomas Schütte
At Punta della Dogana, the first large-scale exhibition in Italy dedicated to German artist Thomas Schütte (born in Oldenburg in 1954) takes shape, promoted by the Pinault Collection and curated by Camille Morineau – an independent curator with a museum background – and Jean-Marie Gallais, a member of the curatorial team of the same collection.
Schütte, an elusive figure with a multifaceted production, has been reflecting for decades on the human experience with irony and unease, manipulating styles and techniques in an ever-changing creative flow. Since the late 1970s, his work has included sculptures, models, photographs, prints, and drawings, building an archive in constant transformation, driven – according to the artist – by the aim to "insert a deformed question mark into the world."
The exhibition explores the recurrence and transformation of motifs within Schütte's major works, from his early years to the present. Organized around a rich selection of nearly fifty sculptures from the Pinault Collection, supplemented by loans from the artist and over a hundred graphic works (most of which have never been exhibited before), the show follows a non-chronological path that brings out the origins of forms and their variations, relating them to the paper-based works – including watercolors, drawings, and prints.
From the very first room, Genealogies imposes a striking presence: three massive figures titled Mann in Wind dominate the space. They seem on the verge of moving but remain frozen, anchored to the pedestals that imprison them. These melancholic giants, far from the heroic ideal, challenge the usual connection between monumental scale, noble materials, and celebration. Next to them, the DEKA Fahnen (1989) introduce a visual vocabulary destined to resurface throughout Schütte's career: large colored drapes where abstraction and figure alternate and intertwine.
In 1995, the Geister [Spirits] appear – ethereal and gestural bodies like actors in a pantomime. Born in wax and later made in more durable materials like bronze, aluminum, or glass, many versions of them exist. In Room 9, the Drei Ganz Große Geister [Three Giant Spirits] stand facing each other as if in a ritual battle, watched over by the enigmatic heads of the Wichte ("Rogues"). The material of these bodies retains the memory of the craftsmanship: the hand-woven wax threads remain visible even in the final versions. For the first time, Schütte decides to exhibit them revealing the structures that anchor them to the floor. In the preceding room (Room 8), a Zombie – a compressed and fragmented version of a Geist – lies motionless and expressionless.
Schütte always returns to the human figure, his gravitational center, sometimes treated with sarcasm, sometimes with poignant tenderness. In the Pinault Collection, his characters – shaped in wax, glass, bronze, steel, clay, or ceramic – emerge as full figures or as isolated heads, always in dialogue with drawing and two-dimensional portraiture. Through a balance of cruelty and ingenuity, intimacy and theatricality, gravity and lightness, the artist's creative universe stands out as one of the most extraordinary and unsettling on the contemporary scene.
"My work concerns all parts of human identity, but not explicitly."
— Camille Morineau
The exhibition is supported by Bottega Veneta.
THOMAS SCHÜTTE
From April 6 to November 23
Pinault Collection
Punta della Dogana, Dorsoduro 2 Venice
Opening hours: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Last entry at 6:15 PM
Closed on Tuesdays.
The entry ticket is valid for exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.
visite@palazzograssi.it
