This major retrospective volume on the

celebrated contemporary German artist is a

kaleidoscopic sampling of Thomas Schütte s

exploration of the perversity and pleasure of

modern life. Organized around the themes of models, monuments, and

memorials key subjects in Schütte s art this volume offers a

comprehensive selection of work from the late 1970s to today

by an artist considered a key figure of his generation. Schütte s

installations, sculptures, prints, drawings, and watercolors

often take contradictory forms, and his art may seem to depict

alien worlds. Yet his focus is everyday life, whose basic

constituents natural, cultural, political he revises, using a

broad range of materials and colors, while asking questions

about the place of art in society. Schütte has long engaged

with many of the traditional genres of sculpture the reclining

female figure and the commemorative portrait bust, for

example yet the results are utterly unconventional. A deeply

contrarian spirit informs his approach, resulting in a

transformation of standard and formulaic modes into singular

statements that reflect on history, politics, social space, and

collective experience. Together the works in this book

comprise an impressive career marked by constant change

and innovation.