.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
Executed in 1993, Basement II is one of an iconic series of architectural models created by Thomas Schütte. The second out of a series of four works depicting the basements of illusory buildings, Basement I and Basement IV are currently held in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Exhibited in 1998 in the artist's celebrated retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery, Basement II appears like a table, simply constructed out of plywood. Upon closer inspection, the work reveals a labyrinth of descending staircases, landing platforms and rooms sequestered beneath the surface. These are private spaces like the deep recesses of the mind, the usually unseen, unspoken repositories hidden away from public scrutiny. In Basement II, Schütte cracks open this edifice, revealing the complexities of the architectural environment and drawing parallels with the human condition. Unlike the previous generation of German painters including Anselm Kiefer and Markus Lüpertz who, under the influence of Joseph Beuys, embraced social issues such as the legacy of National Socialism and the Holocaust through the use of myth and legend, Schütte takes the opposite approach. As Lynne Cooke has observed, he turns instead to the 'small-scale, intimate, modest and banal to create a disarmingly understated yet charged vocabulary' (T. Schütte quoted in L. Cooke, 'Turning the Tables', L. Cooke (ed.), Thomas Schütte: Retrospective, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, 2010, p. 23).
Schütte studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the middle of the 1970s. It was here that he joined Gerhard Richter's class, becoming exposed to his teacher's radical reinterpretation of painting. Richter's classes were complemented by a series of lectures carried out by his cohorts including Daniel Buren, Niele Toroni and Blinky Palermo. These sessions were organised by Benjamin H. Buchloch, who was breaking new ground with his own incisive, institutional critique. It is against this formative backdrop that Schütte was to develop his own artistic vernacular relating to history, collective memory and public space. In certain respects, Schütte's early focus on these issues was not dissimilar to that undertaken by others of his generation including Ludgar Gerdes, Juan Muñoz and Mike Kelley, pioneering a new postmodern approach to art. Whilst at the Academy, Schütte also became familiar with the work of Karl Kneidl, whose classes dedicated to scenography and theatre design involved the creation of conceptual models at a ratio of 1:20. This relationship is one that Schütte has continued to employ and is evident in Basement II. As he explained 'I like the small scale of the model because you have the whole world inside a room or on a table top' (T. Schütte quoted in in L. Cooke, 'Turning the Tables', L. Cooke (ed.), Thomas Schütte: Retrospective, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, 2010, p. 23).
Schütte studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the middle of the 1970s. It was here that he joined Gerhard Richter's class, becoming exposed to his teacher's radical reinterpretation of painting. Richter's classes were complemented by a series of lectures carried out by his cohorts including Daniel Buren, Niele Toroni and Blinky Palermo. These sessions were organised by Benjamin H. Buchloch, who was breaking new ground with his own incisive, institutional critique. It is against this formative backdrop that Schütte was to develop his own artistic vernacular relating to history, collective memory and public space. In certain respects, Schütte's early focus on these issues was not dissimilar to that undertaken by others of his generation including Ludgar Gerdes, Juan Muñoz and Mike Kelley, pioneering a new postmodern approach to art. Whilst at the Academy, Schütte also became familiar with the work of Karl Kneidl, whose classes dedicated to scenography and theatre design involved the creation of conceptual models at a ratio of 1:20. This relationship is one that Schütte has continued to employ and is evident in Basement II. As he explained 'I like the small scale of the model because you have the whole world inside a room or on a table top' (T. Schütte quoted in in L. Cooke, 'Turning the Tables', L. Cooke (ed.), Thomas Schütte: Retrospective, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, 2010, p. 23).