Thomas Schutte: Faces & Figures

Over the last two decades, alongside his better known sculptural work, German artist Thomas Schutte (born 1954) has created watercolors and drawings of his acquaintances and friends, as well as numerous self-portraits (such as the Mirror Drawings). These drawings are often created in series, as Schutte approaches the same subject over and over, obsessively covering all angles and methodically exhausting the possibilities. Schutte’s drawings directly inform his sculptural portraits, which are created in a similar spirit. With 130 color reproductions, Faces and Figures offers a selective, themed Schutte retrospective, surveying these portraits and other works on paper, as well as ceramic and bronze sculptures–including the impressive Vater Staat (Father State), a towering steel figure that despite its scale appears frail and isolate.