Skarstedt is pleased to announce a multimedia exhibition of works from Thomas Schütte’s Frauen series, featuring both sculptures and a suite of etchings. Over the course of a decade, Schütte produced a group of 18 monumental sculptures made of bronze, steel and aluminum. Utilizing traditional materials and methods of production, Schütte created visceral works that thoroughly examine and expand the relationship between the female form and sculpture, and are amongst the artist’s best known and highly praised work. Schütte’s etchings from 2006 introduce an intimate vantage point on the Frauen figures with delicate details, juxtaposed with the immediate physicality of the sculptures on which they are based. Frauen will be on view at Skarstedt Chelsea (550 West 21st Street) from September 15th through October 22nd, 2016.

These expansively scaled sculptures were derived from a selection of ceramic models Schütte made between 1997 and 1999. Beginning at such a modest size, and working with a malleable material such as clay, enabled the artist to submit these forms into contortions and spatial abstractions that appear otherworldly in this monumental scale. A number of these recumbent figures call to mind classic female nudes, while others are so distorted that the female shape is barely recognizable having been brutally transformed.

Schütte takes on this highly charged subject matter with his characteristic skepticism, constantly questioning the perception and purpose of art throughout history. He considers the complex relationship between the male gaze and depiction of the female nude by introducing contradictions, such as power and vulnerability. The women are staged on platforms as victims of the attitudes of a male dominated past, yet simultaneously maintain a striking presence in scale, commanding respect from their audience.

This study, which expands our understanding of the female form, continues the lineage of his predecessors Henry Moore, Aristide Maillol, and Auguste Rodin in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the artist’s inimitable unique and subversive black humor.