3
Mar/13

THOMAS SCHÜTTE: UNITED ENEMIES

3
Mar/13
Thomas Schütte carefully watches installation of “United Enemies” at Central Park entrance on March 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Thomas Schütte carefully watches installation of “United Enemies” at Central Park entrance on March 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Scholars’ Gate, Doris C. Freedman Plaza
Central Park entrance, 60th St. & Fifth Ave.
March 5 – August 25
Public Art Fund Talk: Monday, March 4, the New School, 55 West 13th St., $10, 6:30
www.publicartfund.org
united enemies installation slideshow

This weekend, Thomas Schütte’s “United Enemies” was installed on Doris C. Freedman Plaza in front of the Scholars’ Gate entrance to Central Park on Sixtieth St., and the installation itself lent a whole new dynamic to the monumental bronze sculptures. Influenced by political corruption scandals in the Italian government, Schütte has created two pairs of mythical figures bound together forever by tightly knotted rope. These bizarre-looking figures, their faces contorted into impossible forms, resemble twisted versions of Auguste Rodin’s “Monument to Balzac,” their honor long gone. The “United Enemies” series began in the early 1990s when Schütte, who studied with Gerhard Richter at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, started using clay, wood, and wire to compose miniature figures tied together and captured in bell jars. The large-scale statues, which are making their U.S. debut in this presentation of the Public Art Fund, are bold and provocative in their bigger version, calling into question the very nature of celebratory statues and public art. The subjects here don’t seem to enjoy being on display, physically joined to an enemy; imagine a disgraced Republican congressman tied to a dirty Democratic adversary in perpetuity and these are most likely the kinds of faces they’d be making. And they’re not standing on platforms the way most public sculptures are but instead are balancing precipitously on wooden beams that recall the cross. But when the two works were being installed on March 2, with Schütte carefully watching, they took on another dimension. As the works were being lowered into position, the thick cord was wrapped around the necks of three of the men, as if they were being hanged for their crimes; the cord on the fourth man was wound over his mouth, as if he were being censured or had been kidnapped. Schütte will be at the New School on March 4 at 6:30, giving a rare talk that will focus on scale and public sculpture.