Schwebezustande: Frauen von Thomas Schutte

Thomas Schutte’s Frauen (Women) reactivate the intensely debated field of the conventional female nude, which was largely regarded as anachronistic at the end of the twentieth century, in a monumental format and with perplexing figuration. The monograph approaches the group of works Frauen based on five areas of analysis, ranging from the production of the figures to the exhibiting of them in diverse contexts. It elucidates at what points, in what manifestations, and with what functions a principle of being kept in a state of flux becomes productive, since this principle is what keeps the large, hundreds-of-kilos-heavy sculptures in motion and thus opens up questions with respect to the human, female figure and options for depicting it in monumental sculpture.