United Enemies 23

Although Thomas Schütte’s work encompasses sculpture, drawing and painting in equal measure, it is as a sculptor, and initially for his architectonic models, that he is known. Closely followed by figurative sculpture and suggestive installations, which often also open a critical, and at times ironical, view on society and social contexts. From large-scale sculpture to small objects, he continues to work with a broad range of materials and forms, and manages time and again to surprize with new approaches. To Blickachsen 13 Schütte contributes two larger-than-life bronzes, “United Enemies”, originally created in many different variants as barely 40 cm high pairs of figures made of Fimo modelling clay, fabric and cord. Inseparably knotted together, bald-headed and with faces grotesquely twisted, they stand like tied-up tripods on a meadow in the Bad Homburg Kurpark – battle-ready pairs of enemies, unable to stir themselves and forced, indeed wedged, together, until they perhaps in time calm down in mutual understanding.
Thomas Schütte studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and has been exhibited worldwide in major exhibitions. For his presentation at the 2005 Venice Biennale he was awarded the Golden Lion.