.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In most of his large-scale works, Thomas Schtte employs the language and materials of an architect or a stage designer. His works invade the space of the viewer and thus confront him in a very real way. Schtte envisions the space created by his artworks as a forum for communication, and so he sets the stage for the mutual interaction of us, his players.
Upon entering the space occupied by Schtte's 'Boats', the viewer becomes irritated. Not only are they curiously out of scale, but their colours do not seem to correspond with reality, that is to say, we've never seen real boats painted this way. In addition, the forms used are also out of synch with each other; nothing really seems to fit together properly. Part of the irritation also comes from the fact that, like his architectural models, the boats are so reduced in form that they simultaneously represent both specific objects and generic symbols of standard objects. Their positioning indoors underscores their inherent lack of function, while their isolation from any other maritime references makes them even more 'uncanny' and artificial.
The strength of Schtte's architecturally scaled works is their oscillation between the specific and the generic, between life and artifice, between realism and abstraction. We recognize the forms as being those of boats, yet at the same time know instinctively that we are dealing with art and not a means of nautical transportation. The viewer is confronted with the space between the artificial boat-like structures and becomes aware of his own human scale and his own natural presence.
Upon entering the space occupied by Schtte's 'Boats', the viewer becomes irritated. Not only are they curiously out of scale, but their colours do not seem to correspond with reality, that is to say, we've never seen real boats painted this way. In addition, the forms used are also out of synch with each other; nothing really seems to fit together properly. Part of the irritation also comes from the fact that, like his architectural models, the boats are so reduced in form that they simultaneously represent both specific objects and generic symbols of standard objects. Their positioning indoors underscores their inherent lack of function, while their isolation from any other maritime references makes them even more 'uncanny' and artificial.
The strength of Schtte's architecturally scaled works is their oscillation between the specific and the generic, between life and artifice, between realism and abstraction. We recognize the forms as being those of boats, yet at the same time know instinctively that we are dealing with art and not a means of nautical transportation. The viewer is confronted with the space between the artificial boat-like structures and becomes aware of his own human scale and his own natural presence.