No More Heroes?

The Strange World of Thomas Schutte

This week I visited the new Thomas Schutte exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Unfamiliar with his work, I walked through the galleries with fresh eyes, as though entering someone else’s dreamspace. 

Although the exhibit has works in many media, I found his sculpture pieces most compelling. His “United Enemies” series first grabbed my attention. 

These maquette duos suggested to me political rivals strapped together so that their fates are joined whether they like it or not.  

One room has two strange tall guardians: odd, wonky, fellows with bottlecap hats.

Born in 1954, and based in Dusseldorf, Schutte is one of the generation of postwar German artists who are very conscious of history. He is especially aware of how public artworks can be hijacked for authoritarian propaganda. 

Schutte therefore imbues his monuments with satirical touches of the grotesque that deliberately subvert expectations.

The idea that “classical beauty is eternal” has driven much of Western art over the centuries. But this perfection is also the art most idealized by totalitarian governments – it serves their agenda of discriminating against the “other,” the ugly, the poor, the sick, or disabled. 

Just as the classical perfection of public monuments (to pharaohs, kings, saints, and gods) concealed a triumphalist agenda, so too does the capitalist mirage of unattainable beauty in the imagery of Hollywood and fashion today.

The figures that Schutte sculpts deliberately break apart these false standards; they are anti-heroic, human in all their imperfections.

They are uniquely odd, but not freaks.

Although some might find his figures too grotesque and unsettling, I felt very much at home in these galleries. The message I took from these works was: “We’re all fragile, fucked-up beings, and that’s all right – even worth celebrating.”

Plus it’s hard not to grin when you walk into a room filled with giant watermelon slices. 

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