Thomas Schütte

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2000

Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Dia Center for the Arts, Scenewright, Gloria in Memoria, In Medias Res, 1999-2000, pp. 95, 112-115, and 142, installation view of another example 

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals some unobtrusive hairline scratches in isolated places throughout. There is some superficial dirt adhering to the crevices in places.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The contorted limbs and flaccid voluptuousness of Schütte's Bronze Woman I disrupts the noble connotation traditionally assigned to the reclining female figure. With a body that is flattened and distorted and a head that dissolves into a melting form, this traditionally graceful archetype is imbued with an underlying violence and savagery. Leaning back on her pedestal in a persiflage of sensuality the figure dares to lose her balance. Deformed by a struggle against the gravitational forces, her distorted body epitomises the tension between the figurative and the abstract, forging a union between earthly corporeality and animated artistic expression.

Despite the ancient connotation evoked by Schütte's reclining figure, it is the more modern sculptural tradition with which he has truly aligned himself. As Penelope Curtis has noted: "With this series, Schütte is working in a field which, over the last century, has raised the same question. From Aristide Maillol to Henry Moore through to the Cubist sculptors, the reclining female figure has provided the space in which artists have explored a range of different kinds of abstraction within an ostensibly figurative format" (Penelope Curtis, 'Reclining Sculpture', in: Reina Sofia, Museo Nacional Centro De Arte, Thomas Schütte: Hindsight, 2009, p. 54). Associating himself with some of the great visionaries of European sculpture Schütte pushed the limits of the human form, and pursued a longstanding exploration of the female figure as a site of transformation.

Heralding the sculptural aspect of his female figure over the figurative, Schütte placed his women on plinths. In form these heavy steel tables bear a bed like quality and conjure aspects of the Baroque reclining figures, such as Bernini's Borghese Hermaphrodite, who lusciously sprawls on a mattress. Considering the spatial impediments of the reclining figure, it is a form dependent on the support of its base. Schütte's reclining nudes, in particular, are inextricably linked to their plinths and were initially produced as much smaller clay versions, in which the sculpture and plinth were created from one block. As these female figures struggle to emerge from the heavy block of clay, they ascend to present themselves on a podium, a pedestal on which their gracious form is celebrated for its true sculptural impact. In fact, in many of his earlier works Schütte had already placed special importance on plinths, fashioning pedestals and stands for his architectural models and mannequins. Exposed on a platform Schütte’s figures provoke a dichotomy of power and defencelessness, the plinth acting both as podium and gallows, on which the lonely figures are exposed to their audience. Thus, his Bronze Women resemble both idols and victims. Their collapsing form conjures an innate vulnerability, whilst their monumental size stands as an emblem of authority.

By the time Schütte began this seminal series of reclining women, he had already gained widespread international recognition. After his poignant installation Die Fremden (The Strangers) at Documenta IX in 1992, and his series of contorted figures entitled Untitled Enemies, Schütte engaged with the anthropomorphic potential of the human form in his monumental sculptures, Large Ghosts, a series of haunting humanoids created between 1995 and 2004. Bizarre and alluring at once these colossal sculptures are striking paradigms of the artist's unique exploration into the complexities, paradoxes and obscurities of the human condition; an exploration of the human form further expanded in his seminal series of large female figures.  

Imbued with the monumental presence and physicality of the traditional sculptural subject of the reclining nude Schütte's "Frauen make an overt claim to be part of the history of sculpture. They assert their position within other people's lineages" and are instilled with a statuesque grandeur that is at once humble and emphatic (Ibid., p. 64). Translating an emblem of classical iconography into a totem of our contemporary era, Schütte has created a transcendental entity that stands as a monumental eulogy to the human figure.