Thomas Schütte (b. 1954)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Thomas Schütte (b. 1954)

Study For 'Die Fremden' (The Strangers)

Details
Thomas Schütte (b. 1954)
Study For 'Die Fremden' (The Strangers)
signed 'Th. Schutte' (lower left); dated '26.4.92' (lower right)
gouache and crayon on paper
43 3/8 x 78in. (110 x 198cm.)
Executed in 1992
Provenance
Galerie Konrad Fischer, Dusseldorf.
Private Collection.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's London, 26 June 2003, lot 128.
Private Collection, USA.
Anon. sale, Christie's Paris, 8 December 2010, lot 13.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. On occasion, Christie’s has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale, which may include guaranteeing a minimum price or making an advance to the consignor that is secured solely by consigned property. Christie’s may choose to assume this financial risk on its own or may contract with a third party for such third party to assume all or part of this financial risk. When a third party agrees to finance all or part of Christie’s interest in a lot, it takes on all or part of the risk of the lot not being sold, and will be remunerated in exchange for accepting this risk out of Christie’s revenues from the sale, whether or not the third party is a successful bidder. The third party may bid for the lot and may or may not have knowledge of the reserves. Where it does so, and is the successful bidder, the remuneration may be netted against the final purchase price. If the lot is not sold, the third party may incur a loss. Christie’s guarantee of a minimum price for this lot has been fully financed through third parties These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Katharine Arnold
Katharine Arnold

Lot Essay

‘My figures in Kassel [at Documenta IX] are victims, basically lifesize vases, precious containers with modest faces. I hope everybody feels that the figures have an interior’
THOMAS SCHÜTTE


Study for ‘Die Fremden’ (1992) is a large-scale painting made in preparation for Thomas Schütte’s seminal sculptural installation Die Fremden (The Strangers), which he created to coincide with Documenta IX in 1992. Monumental in its own right, this colourful study captures Schütte’s vision for the powerful group of glazed terracotta figures, urns and luggage that he would install on the neoclassical portico of the old Rotes Palais (occupied by the Leffer department store), opposite the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel. A small ‘family’ of figures remains on the building to this day, with the others split between the collections of Tate Modern, the Museum Fridericianum, and the Musik- und Kongresshalle Lübeck. Die Fremden was conceived as a way of highlighting the plight of refugees who had arrived in Germany following unification in 1989, particularly those fleeing the first Gulf War of 1991. These people were met with xenophobia, hostility and violence, which Schütte saw the German state as complicit in through its lack of intervention. Each of Schütte’s figures is presented in the same format of simple body, columnar legs and downcast face, but with individuated colours, outfits and statures; the urns emphasise an idea of people as containers, precious vessels of their own history and experience. By placing them to watch over Kassel’s prominent public square, Schütte brought the lives of these ‘strangers’ to striking attention. Theatre informs Schütte’s work as much as architecture. Operating like a set design, Study for ‘Die Fremden’ prepares the stage for a masterpiece.

Executed in gouache, the study’s bold colours reflect the clarity and power of the sculptures’ conception, as well as their relationship to the façade on which they stand sentinel. Schütte wished them to be viewed only from afar; appropriately, the study is dominated by the imposing frontage of the Rotes Palais, replicating the impact of the figures’ vertiginous distance from the viewer below. The graphic rendering of the building’s portico, columns, steps and arches displays Schütte’s sharp attention to context, and his understanding of architecture as a way of exploring the structures, systems and contradictions of society. ‘They wanted sculpture as a logo or traffic sign’, he recalled, ‘but I immediately had this idea of putting people on the roof ... For me it was first of all a very interesting site overlooking this place, and I immediately had this image in mind of placing some colourful, static figures on top of the building as a permanent installation’ (T. Schütte, quoted in J. Lingwood, ‘Interview,’ in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, pp. 12-13). Public memorials are more often erected for conquerors than for oppressed people, dictators than refugees. A key work in a practice that has long powerfully subverted the language of public monument, Die Fremden offers sculpture as an alternative, subtle and startling means of remembrance. ‘My figures in Kassel are victims,’ said Schütte, ‘basically lifesize vases, precious containers with modest faces. I hope everybody feels that the figures have an interior’ (T. Schütte, quoted in J. Lingwood, ‘Interview,’ in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, p. 14). Much as each terracotta ‘stranger’ speaks of an individual life, Study for ‘Die Fremden’ tells the story of this important work’s creation, and gives a fascinating insight into the process of one of the world’s greatest living sculptors.

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