NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art announces a retrospective of German contemporary artist Thomas Schütte, which will provide a holistic survey of his career from 1975 to the present. On view in the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions from September 29, 2024, through January 18, 2025, the exhibition will include Schütte’s sculptures, drawings, prints, and experiments in architecture. Taking aesthetics, form, and history as its focus, the exhibition aims to provide a deeper understanding of the artist’s practice and introduce new audiences to one of the most significant sculptors working today. Presented solely at MoMA, this will be the first museum survey of Schütte’s work in the United States in over 20 years and will feature a selection of rarely seen works, in addition to those for which he is well known. Thomas Schütte is organized by Paulina Pobocha, former Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA, and current Robert Soros Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Caitlin Chaisson, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA.
Born in Oldenburg, Germany, in 1954, Schütte studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Gerhard Richter and a cohort of artists at the academy that included Katharina Fritsch, Isa Genzken, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, and others. His early work offered a critique of then-dominant Minimalist and Conceptual art while deeply engaging with cultural and historical content. Schütte’s two-pronged approach considers both the short and long histories of art and embeds them within broader narratives, resulting in a body of work that is both visually and conceptually arresting. This exhibition will consider the common thread that binds these seemingly unrelated objects—ranging from figurative sculpture to intimate watercolors and architectural models—and what they reveal about art and the culture in which they were made.
Schütte said, “Art is beautiful but requires considerable effort,” referencing the German art dealer Curt Valentin. Pobocha explains, “This quote reveals so much about Thomas’s approach to art-making. Even the simplest gesture arises from a concentrated study of form and content, reflections on history, and how art—whether sculpture, drawing, or architecture—relates to the world beyond itself. More than this, he implicitly asks his audience to meet him halfway, to take time with the work. This too requires effort, but the most rewarding kind.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue examining Schütte’s practice from his training at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to the present. Essays by Pobocha, Jennifer Allen, and André Rottmann provide art historical, historical, and theoretical pathways into the complexity of Schütte’s oeuvre. Artists Marlene Dumas and Charles Ray reflect on his significance through close readings of his work.
