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Lot Essay
Two vast, gleaming entities, their bodies apparently fluid, Thomas Schütte's Grosse Geister channel a world of anxiety, a sense of impermanence, an awareness of the fragility of the human condition. Executed in 1998, these sculptures appear to be barely able to hold onto solidity. They have but the most tenuous grasp of all that it is to be human. Even the substance with which they have been rendered, the polished aluminium, makes them appear like mirrors, leaving them even more cipher-like and incomprehensible. As well as pointing towards an almost philosophical concern with communication, Schütte both reinforces and undermines the nature of art itself as a means of representation. These figures both point towards and rely upon the subjectivity of the act of seeing.
Through all these effects, Schütte conveys the sense that these are indeed the great spirits of the title. These towering sculptures, stalking like clumsy giants, convey the impossibility of human communication, not least through the fact that they cannot be pinned down. There are no facial features, no toes or fingers, and when we look closer at their surface, we see only a distorted reflection of ourselves... Are we all, then, Grosse Geister?
While on the one hand conveying a sense of the fallibility of human communication, Schütte has also created something that is somehow palpable. There is a haptic sense implied in their fluid forms, which push the viewer towards a perception that relies not only on sight but also on touch, on feel. The viewer, disturbed and intimidated by these hulking presences, also against all logic wants almost to sink his or her hands into this mercury-like fluid-metal surface. In this, and in their deliberate elusiveness, the Grosse Geister succeed in conveying Schütte's own belief that, 'The things you cannot talk about-- these are essential. I believe that material, form and colour have their own language that cannot be translated. Direct experience is much more touching than media, photographs and so on' (Schütte, quoted in A. Bonnant, CAP Collection, Switzerland 2005, p. 250). In Grosse Geister, Schütte provides us with a direct experience of form and feeling, while also capturing a sense of the limitations of language, even visual language.
Through all these effects, Schütte conveys the sense that these are indeed the great spirits of the title. These towering sculptures, stalking like clumsy giants, convey the impossibility of human communication, not least through the fact that they cannot be pinned down. There are no facial features, no toes or fingers, and when we look closer at their surface, we see only a distorted reflection of ourselves... Are we all, then, Grosse Geister?
While on the one hand conveying a sense of the fallibility of human communication, Schütte has also created something that is somehow palpable. There is a haptic sense implied in their fluid forms, which push the viewer towards a perception that relies not only on sight but also on touch, on feel. The viewer, disturbed and intimidated by these hulking presences, also against all logic wants almost to sink his or her hands into this mercury-like fluid-metal surface. In this, and in their deliberate elusiveness, the Grosse Geister succeed in conveying Schütte's own belief that, 'The things you cannot talk about-- these are essential. I believe that material, form and colour have their own language that cannot be translated. Direct experience is much more touching than media, photographs and so on' (Schütte, quoted in A. Bonnant, CAP Collection, Switzerland 2005, p. 250). In Grosse Geister, Schütte provides us with a direct experience of form and feeling, while also capturing a sense of the limitations of language, even visual language.