![[no title] by Thomas Schütte](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd2w8kbdekdi1gv.cloudfront.net%2FeyJidWNrZXQiOiAiYXJ0ZXJhLWltYWdlcy1idWNrZXQiLCAia2V5IjogImFydHdvcmtzLzY5YmExMTM4LWJmMmMtNDA4NS1iOGIzLWE2NzYxYWUyOWQ2Yi82OWJhMTEzOC1iZjJjLTQwODUtYjhiMy1hNjc2MWFlMjlkNmJfZnVsbC5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiAxOTIwLCAiaGVpZ2h0IjogMTkyMCwgImZpdCI6ICJpbnNpZGUifX19&w=3840&q=75)
Dimensions: image: 640 x 950 mm
Copyright: © Thomas Schütte, DACS 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This intriguing piece by Thomas Schütte, currently untitled and part of the Tate collection, features two portrait busts. They seem rather somber. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It's interesting how Schütte uses classical portraiture, traditionally a symbol of power and status, to depict such melancholy figures. Consider the sociopolitical context—what commentary might he be making on authority figures or the human condition? Editor: Perhaps a critique of the powerful, showing their hidden vulnerability? Curator: Precisely. And the choice of medium, possibly marble, further complicates the reading. It's a fascinating commentary on the public image versus private emotion. Editor: I never thought about the material choice that way. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. It shows how art can reflect and challenge societal norms.
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This is one of a portfolio of ten four-colour offset lithographs created from a group of sculptures collectively titled United Enemies 1993-4 (see Tate T07017-9). Schütte made eighteen pairs of small male figures bound to each other with string and tape and enclosed under a glass bell jar. He modeled the figures’ heads roughly by hand in coloured fimo, a modeling compound sold in toy shops. To make the bodies he wrapped and stuffed rags from various sources on a tripod of doubled beechwood dowel sticks, bound together in pairs at the base with masking tape and medical sticking plaster. Each couple stands on a shallow wooden plinth set on a tall section of terracotta-coloured plastic drainpipe. The figures are trapped shoulder to shoulder, either looking towards each other or looking away. Schütte photographed the characters’ heads and shoulders from close up against a black background and under a spotlight. He had the photographs enlarged and reprinted as lithographs. To enhance the intensity of the characters’ gaze, he highlighted the pupils on several of the prints (Tate P77754-7 and Tate P77759-61) with specks of typists’ correction fluid. The portfolio is subtitled ‘A Play in Ten Scenes’, referring to the theatre of public life. It was published by Yves Gevaert, Brussels in an edition of thirty-five.
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