Organized around the themes of models, monuments, and memorials-key subjects in Schutte's art-this volume offers a comprehensive selection of work from the late 1970s to today by an artist considered a key figure of his generation. Schutte's installations, sculptures, prints, drawings, and watercolours often take contradictory forms, and his art may seem to depict alien worlds. Yet his focus is everyday life, whose basic constituents-natural, cultural, political-he revises, using a broad range of materials and colours, while asking questions about the place of art in society. Schutte has long engaged with many of the traditional genres of sculpture-the reclining female figure and the commemorative portrait bust, for example-yet the results are utterly unconventional. A deeply contrarian spirit informs his approach, resulting in a transformation of standard and formulaic modes into singular statements that reflect on history, politics, social space, and collective experience. Together the works in this book comprise an impressive career marked by constant change and innovation.

Author Biography

LYNNE COOKE is Curator of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, and Curator at Large for the Dia Art Foundation, New York, USA. PENELOPE CURTIS is Curator at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK. CHRISTINE MEHRING is Professor of Art History, the University of Chicago, USA.