Father State (Thomas Schütte)

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Head of the sculpture Father State in front of the New National Gallery in Berlin

Father State is the title of a sculpture by the sculptor Thomas Schütte from 2007–2010. It shows a standing man with realistic facial features who is dressed in a cap and a floor-length coat that covers his body. There are versions of the figure in various sizes and materials, of which the larger-than-life sculptures in bronze or steel are known. These monumental figures were shown in internationally acclaimed exhibitions, and some examples ended up in museums. Although the artist says he does not explicitly associate a political statement with the figure, several authors see a reference to the current political situation in the sculpture Father State and place it in the tradition of historical statues.

Executions and description

Front view of the sculpture Father State in the Sculpture Park Waldfrieden , Wuppertal
Rear view of the sculpture Father State in the Sculpture Park Waldfrieden, Wuppertal

Thomas Schütte began in 2007 with a first figure of Uncle Sam , which he made modeling clay modeled. From this he developed the final shape in his workshop. In 2010 he created small-format bronze sculptures measuring 49.5 cm × 22.2 cm × 11 cm. These bronze figures are each mounted on a stele made of steel, which is 120 cm high and has a base of 30 cm × 30 cm. There is an edition of six plus three artist casts of this series. One such figure - also known as a model - was auctioned for £ 782,000 in 2015  .

In addition to these small-format figures, large-format sculptures were cast in 2010 and 2011. They are available in patinated bronze or rust-colored steel. The bronze figures are given with a height of 383 cm, a width of 155 cm and a weight of 1.1 tons. The dimensions of the steel version are 373 cm × 155 cm × 110 cm.

All versions show the same figure, regardless of their size or material. A standing man is shown wearing a cap and a floor-length coat. The headgear is sometimes referred to as a "Moroccan cap" and sometimes as an "oriental headgear"; Thomas Schütte calls it the "Afghan hat". In fact, the hat of the sculpture Father State has similarities with the headgear of the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai . Schütte cited the reason for wearing the head: "I put the hat on so I didn't have any hairstyle problems". And further: "Three quarters of every human head consists of a hairstyle, but it is almost impossible to draw or model a hairstyle." Schütte also commented on the figure's long coat: "He already had the little coat in the model, because knees and legs are difficult to make. ”Indeed, this“ flowing long robe ”almost completely covers the body and the limbs are not recognizable. Where the arms and hands are visibly missing, the "almost fluffy-looking" coat is tied tightly around the waist. The author Markus Kink comments on this: "It is possible that your arms are tied off by the tightly laced belt". Even the feet are missing from this robe that reaches to the floor. Instead, the heavy, wrinkled robe gives the sculpture stability. For Schütte, the figure is “actually just a little coat with a face in it”.

The formulated facial features are unusual in Schütte's work when depicting figures. Large ears, high cheekbones and open, forward-facing eyes characterize the facial features, which, as the authors Gundel and Täuber note, “signal a certain severity, but also paternal composure”. Markus Kink speaks of a look that is “serious and dignified”.

Father State - work title and reception

There is a general statement from Thomas Schütte about work titles: “Unfortunately you still have to add a name, some artists only give out a number. The linguistic bias of journalists means that a title sometimes means a lot more than the actual work. ”Despite the supposedly negative attitude towards titles, Schütte repeatedly gave his work very meaningful names, such as bunker , my grave or holiday home for terrorists . His well-known figure representations also have striking titles. This is how he called his work for Documenta IX in Kassel Die Fremde , later presented United Enemies and gave other works titles such as Großer Geist or Mann im Matsch .

  • Thomas Schütte:
    The strangers

  • Thomas Schütte:
    United Enemies

  • Thomas Schütte:
    Great spirit

  • Thomas Schütte:
    Man in the mud

With the figure of the father state , Thomas Schütte did not want to make a political statement that it was not a “creed sculpture”. His employees chose the title by chance in the workshop when they discovered a similarity between the figure's face and that of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble . Schütte himself stated: “For me, the name is almost always just a joke, names are labels, they are not really important. In the model, Father State looked so similar to our finance minister, I could hardly call it Schäuble Standing , but everyone was satisfied with Father State . "

Even if the artist's original intention was possibly different, the interpretation of the figure through the designation Father State authorized by Schütte is closely related to its title. While the journalist Martina Schürmann referred to the work as “a mixture of Kleist's village judge Adam and Adenauer in a dressing gown” and thus alluded to the main character in Kleist's Der zerbrochne Krug and the former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , other authors drew a direct reference Wolfgang Schäuble, his office as Minister of Finance or on the financial crisis from 2007 . Markus Kink interprets the missing hands by saying that “during the financial crisis, the state has no hands to spend money”. The Berlin tabloid BZ put it: “The arms are thin, the hands are in the pockets, the belt is already tightened. Thomas Schuette's sculpture Father State (2010) shows a grouchy man in a bathrobe. Such a grim face doesn't distribute money. ”Michael Kohler stated in art magazine :“ Father State looks at his children seriously and dignified . He has taken good care of her for over six decades, but now he stands there under his dressing gown without arms and looks terrifyingly helpless despite his height of four meters. ”Kohler emphasized that Schütte saw in his father state the“ Federal Republic after the financial crisis ”. For him, Schütte's father, the State , is a direct consequence of his sculpture Mann im Mud , which the artist had set up in front of a Sparkasse headquarters. For him, this knee-deep sunk figure is evidence of Schütte's attitude towards the global financial world.

Sculpture of the République from 1883, Paris

The authors Gundel / Täuber pointed out that the figure lacked the “insignia of power” despite having a “truly state-bearing title”. Father State is indeed a “dignified giant made of bronze”, but despite “solemn frontality” it satirizes more of a statesmanlike statue. While in the past the respective representatives of the state, ie "monarchs, statesmen, dictators" were honored by monuments, the figure of the father state should be understood more as an allegory and comparable with the representations of the French République . The République from 1883 on the square of the same name in Paris is certainly one of the most famous representations . But the figure of the father state does not stand for the terms associated with the traditional fatherland metaphor father state such as “care, justice and intact social order”. Schütte's father, the state, mediates “less energy” and more “helplessness” due to the lack of hands. For the sculptor Tony Cragg , the statement made by the figure of his friend Thomas Schütte's father State is a “combination of power and cowardice”.

Exhibitions and museum property

Shortly after the first casting of the large-format sculpture Father State , it was shown in exhibitions, where the figure met with a wide response. From July 2010 the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn presented a bronze cast by Father State in the entrance hall as part of the exhibition Thomas Schütte: Big Buildings. Models and views . In 2011 such a bronze cast stood in front of the Punta della Dogana exhibition building in Venice as part of the Elogio del dubbio exhibition . In 2011, a rust-colored version of the sculpture could be viewed in the sculpture exhibition Before the Law in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne . Such a version was also shown in 2012 in the Serpentine Gallery in London as part of the exhibition Thomas Schütte: Faces & Figures and in 2013 in the show Thomas Schütte, Danh Vo : Das Reich ohne Mitte in the Kunsthalle Mainz . Further exhibitions of the sculpture followed in 2014 in the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel, in 2015 in the Palazzo Reale in Milan and in 2016–2017 in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

In 2010 Thomas Schütte made a copy of the bronze figure Father State available to the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park in Wuppertal as a permanent loan . Another example of the large-format bronze sculpture was displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 . Another bronze figure also came to the collection of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2011 as a gift from the entrepreneur Nicolas Berggruen and was placed on the terrace of the Neue Nationalgalerie .

literature

  • Markus Kink (ed.): State views - State visions: a cross-section of political and cultural studies. LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-11613-0 .
  • Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte . Exhibition catalog Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Kunsthalle Vogelmann, Hirmer, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-7774-2309-8 .
  • Theodora Vischer (Ed.): Thomas Schütte: Figure . Exhibition catalog Fondation Beyeler Riehen, König, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-86335-433-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 33.
  2. ↑ See information on auctioning such a small-format sculpture at Christie's auction house .
  3. ^ "Father State" in bronze , article in the Berliner Morgenpost from July 5, 2011.
  4. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 156.
  5. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 54.
  6. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte p. 33.
  7. ↑ Interview statements by Thomas Schütte about the cap of the sculpture reproduced in Berggruen's new gift flown in , article in the BZ of July 3, 2011.
  8. ↑ Interview statements by Thomas Schütte on the mantle of the sculpture reproduced in Berggruen's new gift flown in , article in the BZ of July 3, 2011.
  9. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte p. 33.
  10. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 53.
  11. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 53.
  12. ^ Theodora Vischer (Ed.): Thomas Schütte: Figure , p. 158.
  13. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte p. 33.
  14. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 53.
  15. ^ Theodora Vischer (Ed.):  Thomas Schütte: Figure , p. 158.
  16. ↑ Anne Grages: Thomas Schütte lends Wuppertal his "Father State" , article in the Westdeutsche Zeitung from November 23, 2010.
  17. ↑ Anne Grages: Thomas Schütte lends Wuppertal his "Father State" , article in the Westdeutsche Zeitung from November 23, 2010.
  18. ^ Theodora Vischer (Ed.): Thomas Schütte: Figure , p. 158.
  19. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 54.
  20. ↑ Martina Schürmann: Thomas Schütte pours father state in bronze , article online at DerWesten from July 27, 2010
  21. ↑ Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 53.
  22. ↑ Berggruen's new gift flown in, article in the BZ of July 3, 2011.
  23. ↑ Michael Kohler: Client with a box of returns , article in art - Das Kunstmagazin from July 15, 2010 ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  24. ↑ Michael Kohler: Client with a box of returns , article in art - Das Kunstmagazin from July 15, 2010 ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  25. ↑ Michael Kohler: Client with a box of returns , article in art - Das Kunstmagazin from July 15, 2010 ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  26. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 32.
  27. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 33.
  28. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 32.
  29. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 34.
  30. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 34.
  31. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 32.
  32. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 33.
  33. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 33.
  34. ↑ Marc Gundel, Rita E. Täuber: Thomas Schütte , p. 33.
  35. ↑ Quoted in Markus Kink (Ed.): State Views - State Visions: A Cross Section of Political and Cultural Studies , p. 54.
  36. ↑ Information about the Thomas Schütte exhibition in Stockholm on the Moderna Museet website
  37. ↑ Information on the installation in the Waldfrieden sculpture park in the Westdeutsche Zeitung of November 23, 2010
  38. ↑ Information on the bronze sculpture Father State on the website of the Art Institute of Chicago
  39. ↑ On the donation of the sculpture by Nicolas Berggruen, see "Father State" in bronze , article in the Berliner Morgenpost from July 5, 2011
  40. ↑ Information and pictures for the installation of the sculpture in Berlin in the BZ on July 3, 2011