Art
Thomas Schutte retrospective
Art
Anyone who's ever visited London's Trafalgar Square won't fail to have noticed the swathe of pigeons that sweeps back and forth defecating on anything of note. So it's a brave artist who chooses the location to show their work - despite the esteem in which the Fourth Plinth public art project is held - and German artist Thomas Schutte is the second man to be awarded the accolade.
Click here to see more from the Thomas Schutte retrospective
Schutte's glass creation, titled 'Model for a Hotel' is an architectural model of a 21-storey building, built from five centimetre thick slabs of blue, red and yellow glass. Despite appearing lucid and uncannily delicate, the entire structure weighs over eight tonnes but on a dull London day, certainly lightens up the surrounding expanse of grey. This was of course the artist's intention: to collect, reflect and refract natural light.
The plinth unveiling coincides with a retrospective of Schutte's early work at the Henry Moore Institue in Leeds, focusing on the artist's output from his time spent at the Art Academy in Dusseldorf.
What we find interesting about this stage of the artist's career is his grappling with the boundaries between decorative and functional, applied and fake architectural components.
Using wallpaper, bricks and tiles amongst other building materials, Schutte has arranged each in such a way as to throw light on the nature of art and illusion, where one begins and the other ends.
INFORMATION
- Event dates
- 8 November 2007 to 6 January 2008
- Website
- http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk
- Address
- Henry Moore Institute
74 The Headrow
Leeds
UK LS1 3AH
