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Lot Essay
We cannot place Kleiner Geist within the known beings of this world, and yet it is curiously familiar. It succeeds in evoking, in the very solid and permanent form of sculpture, impermanence and the constant motion of the body. Kleiner Geist conveys Schütte's own belief that, 'The things you cannot talk about - these are essential. I believe that material, form and colour have their own language that cannot be translated. Direct experience is much more touching than media, photographs and so on' (T. Schütte, quoted in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, 9. 22)
Ghostly, fluid and fantastical, Kleiner Geist is an instantly recognisable sculpture from Thomas Schütte's definitive series of Geister works. Made in 1995, Kleiner Geist is entirely unique, expressing its individual personality through its supple pose and carefully moulded form. There is an undeniable wit and aesthetic appeal to Kleiner Geist that arises from Schütte's masterful manipulation of scale and of material. Part of a community of Kleine Geist's made that year, when displayed together as they were in Oldenburger Kunstverein in 1995, form an eccentric, imaginary group that interact with each other in curiously humorous and human way. The success of these Kleine Geister's were the inspiration for his widely exhibited Grosse Geister works, made between 1995 and 2004, now included in major museum collections, such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art Chicago and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
Exemplary of the thread of experimentation and delight in materials that runs through Schütte's work, there is a palpable tactility to Kleiner Geist that is a result of its intuitive inception. The work was constructed from long strands of wax twisted together in the form of spirals, before being immersed in a liquid wax and cast in mirror-finished aluminium. Its unique form was directly invoked during their creation, which Schütte describes almost as a life giving process, born of his interaction with the material in the moment. 'I would rather talk with my hands and through forms and let these creatures live their own lives and tell their own stories. Avoiding certain fixed positions is important to me, avoiding being too classical or too predictableI always hope that in the end the work will be physically present. That the works lead to essential questions is important.' (T. Schütte, quoted in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, p. 22).
While its highly polished surfaces and ambiguous features give Kleiner Geist an undeniable artificiality, it expresses a physicality and sense of movement that is distinctly human. Throughout Schütte's diverse career a concern with humanity and how to represent it has been fundamental to his practice. The carefully observed gestures in Kleiner Geist reveal Schütte as a consummate figurative artist, interested in how the body is able to communicate through movement and pose. Its reflective surface only enhances its elusiveness and its sense of fluidity. There are no discernible facial features, no toes or fingers to the figure, and when we look closer at their surface, we see only a distorted reflection of ourselves.
We cannot place Kleiner Geist within the known beings of this world, and yet it is curiously familiar. It succeeds in evoking, in the very solid and permanent form of sculpture, impermanence and the constant motion of the body. In this way, Schütte both reinforces and undermines the nature of art itself as a means of representation. Kleiner Geist conveys Schütte's own belief that, 'The things you cannot talk about- these are essential. I believe that material, form and colour have their own language that cannot be translated. Direct experience is much more touching than media, photographs and so on' (T. Schütte, quoted in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, p. 22).
Ghostly, fluid and fantastical, Kleiner Geist is an instantly recognisable sculpture from Thomas Schütte's definitive series of Geister works. Made in 1995, Kleiner Geist is entirely unique, expressing its individual personality through its supple pose and carefully moulded form. There is an undeniable wit and aesthetic appeal to Kleiner Geist that arises from Schütte's masterful manipulation of scale and of material. Part of a community of Kleine Geist's made that year, when displayed together as they were in Oldenburger Kunstverein in 1995, form an eccentric, imaginary group that interact with each other in curiously humorous and human way. The success of these Kleine Geister's were the inspiration for his widely exhibited Grosse Geister works, made between 1995 and 2004, now included in major museum collections, such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art Chicago and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
Exemplary of the thread of experimentation and delight in materials that runs through Schütte's work, there is a palpable tactility to Kleiner Geist that is a result of its intuitive inception. The work was constructed from long strands of wax twisted together in the form of spirals, before being immersed in a liquid wax and cast in mirror-finished aluminium. Its unique form was directly invoked during their creation, which Schütte describes almost as a life giving process, born of his interaction with the material in the moment. 'I would rather talk with my hands and through forms and let these creatures live their own lives and tell their own stories. Avoiding certain fixed positions is important to me, avoiding being too classical or too predictableI always hope that in the end the work will be physically present. That the works lead to essential questions is important.' (T. Schütte, quoted in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, p. 22).
While its highly polished surfaces and ambiguous features give Kleiner Geist an undeniable artificiality, it expresses a physicality and sense of movement that is distinctly human. Throughout Schütte's diverse career a concern with humanity and how to represent it has been fundamental to his practice. The carefully observed gestures in Kleiner Geist reveal Schütte as a consummate figurative artist, interested in how the body is able to communicate through movement and pose. Its reflective surface only enhances its elusiveness and its sense of fluidity. There are no discernible facial features, no toes or fingers to the figure, and when we look closer at their surface, we see only a distorted reflection of ourselves.
We cannot place Kleiner Geist within the known beings of this world, and yet it is curiously familiar. It succeeds in evoking, in the very solid and permanent form of sculpture, impermanence and the constant motion of the body. In this way, Schütte both reinforces and undermines the nature of art itself as a means of representation. Kleiner Geist conveys Schütte's own belief that, 'The things you cannot talk about- these are essential. I believe that material, form and colour have their own language that cannot be translated. Direct experience is much more touching than media, photographs and so on' (T. Schütte, quoted in Thomas Schütte, London 1998, p. 22).