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Lot Essay
Thomas Schütte's multidisciplinary oeuvre ranges from drawings, architectural models and photographs to sculptures and installations. 'Geister' is a group of three cast aluminium sculptures, the forms of which have been executed in various scales and media, from very small platic figures to monumental figures in cast aluminium. Always exhibited in groups, these sculptures display a significant relationship with the space they occupy.
Halfway between science fiction monster figures and innocent toys with human gestures and expressions, at once menacing and comically absurd, Schütte's uncanny sculptures cleverly illustrate modern humanity's complexities and contradictions. "The figures are formed from long strands of wax and then cast or enlarged in plastic or aluminium. The fantastical figures produced in this way have a highly artificial appearance, while at the same time revealing a careful observation of human physical expressions and gestures. Their faces, in turn, are sketchy and blank. Almost all of their concrete physicality exists solely within their fleeting gestures; everything in the gleaming metal sculptures appears fluid. One is reminded of those special effects, produced by the most advanced film techniques, in which a body materializes out of nothing, and can be transformed into another at any time. [...] The condition to which they refer is extremely ambiguous, and cannot actually be named in its full absurdity." (J. Heynen, 'Our World', in: J. Heynen, J. Lingwood and A. Vettese, 'Thomas Schütte', London 1998, p.102.)
Halfway between science fiction monster figures and innocent toys with human gestures and expressions, at once menacing and comically absurd, Schütte's uncanny sculptures cleverly illustrate modern humanity's complexities and contradictions. "The figures are formed from long strands of wax and then cast or enlarged in plastic or aluminium. The fantastical figures produced in this way have a highly artificial appearance, while at the same time revealing a careful observation of human physical expressions and gestures. Their faces, in turn, are sketchy and blank. Almost all of their concrete physicality exists solely within their fleeting gestures; everything in the gleaming metal sculptures appears fluid. One is reminded of those special effects, produced by the most advanced film techniques, in which a body materializes out of nothing, and can be transformed into another at any time. [...] The condition to which they refer is extremely ambiguous, and cannot actually be named in its full absurdity." (J. Heynen, 'Our World', in: J. Heynen, J. Lingwood and A. Vettese, 'Thomas Schütte', London 1998, p.102.)