Advocate of the Arts and Crafts - Thomas Schütte at the Georg Kolbe Museum

Born in 1954, Schütte is known for his disciplined approach and his sculptures that humorously comment on the human psyche. Some 30 of them are featured in the exhibition, along with architectural models and numerous drawings and prints, including recent works from this year.

Schütte was able to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2005, among many other international awards. He emphasizes the high importance of craftsmanship, physical labor, and that he creates sculptures mainly for himself. He keeps many of his works in his sculpture hall, for example to independently provide sculptures for exhibitions. He finds digital art uninteresting; in the end, he sees it only as entertainment.

With his treatment of complex cultural-historical worlds of thought, Schütte shares similarities with the sculptor Georg Kolbe, whose former studio was converted into today's museum after his death in 1947. The Georg Kolbe Museum, which is the only German museum in its history to have been directed solely by women, frequently organizes exhibitions on 20th-century sculptors.