Provenance
Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf
Private Collection, Europe
Exhibited
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Thomas Schütte. Hindsight, 16 February 2010 – 17 May 2010
Catalogue Essay
“So far as meanings are concerned, I would rather talk with my own hands and through forms and let these creatures live their own stories.”
THOMAS SCHÜTTE

“History is really a dangerous field to go digging in. But when you do have an idea, then it’s very useful – to go get information or to revise your work, or to revitalise you. If you look at the hundreds of heads in the Capoline Museum [in Rome] they are incredible. Just to look with fresh eyes, as if they were done today, not with the tunnel of art history.”
(The artist in an interview with James Lingwood in Thomas Schütte, London, 1997)

Thomas Schütte trained under Gerhard Richter at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, graduating in 1981. Since then, the artist’s diverse body of work, which consistently delivers his particular vision of history’s influence on the contemporary, has been received with ever wider acclaim. Gelber Hund is one of a number of works in which Schütte has revisited his time spent living in Rome in 1992, drawing inspiration from the city’s rich artistic tradition. This potent conceptual work dwells on historical allegory; the dog’s flipper-like tail and Sphinx-like posture pay homage to the mythical creatures which adorn classical and Renaissance sculpture. The ancient Greek Sphinx, later revived in Renaissance sculptural imagery, was not only a symbolic guardian figure but one that could be merciless too. This historical premise has been reconfigured in Schütte’s Gelber Hund. At first, the sculpture suggests a child’s toy with its innocent expression and inviting yellow colour. On closer inspection, brutal disfigurement becomes evident – blood appears to drip down the body suggesting that this creature might have been a victim of human cruelty. Thus an improbable dichotomy appears between the suggestion of a mythical creature and its apparent physical violation.

Shying away from obvious narratives, Schütte often caveats the ambiguity in his work by presenting his subjects in a monumental manner. Gelber Hund exemplifies this grandiose sculptural style, such as that of the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelis in the Campidoglio, Rome, with a plinth but made from humble materials such as wooden crates and metal poles. This grandiose manner of presentation is a theme which recurs in Schütte’s work and is akin to his Stahlfrau series which he was working on at the same time as Gelber Hund. The visceral female nudes of Stahlfrau, comparable to Gelber Hund in their various unflattering and mutilated states, are presented on large steel tables which accentuate small scale of the female figures’ exposed torsos. In both cases, the victim has been placed on a pedestal, offering an ironical take on the grandeur of commemorative sculpture, and in so doing, reiterating the ambiguit which has come to define Schütte’s work.

“In Schütte’s world, the romantic, the sceptic and the pragmatic constantly rub up against one another. Reflexive and restless, generous and jaundiced, Schütte reveals a contemporary artistic predicament whilst excavating some of the less comfortable aspects of the human condition.” (From the guide by James Lingwood and James Peto accompanying the exhibition ‘Thomas Schütte’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1997)

10

Thomas Schütte

Gelber Hund

2003
Glazed ceramic.
Overall: 213 × 125 × 85 cm (84 × 43 1/4 × 23 5/8 in).

Estimate
£250,000 - 350,000 ♠

Sold for £241,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

16 February 2012
London

1
This lot is no longer available.
2
Joe Bradley
Killroy
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £49,250
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3
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £85,250
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4
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £169,250
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5
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡♠
Sold for £505,250
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6
Marc Quinn
The Golden Column (Microcosmos)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £289,250
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7
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #410
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £433,250
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8
Ugo Rondinone
VIERZEHNTEROKTOBERZWEITAUSENDUNDNULL
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £157,250
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9
Takashi Murakami
Troll’s Umbrella
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £385,250
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10
Thomas Schütte
Gelber Hund
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £241,250
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11
Isa Genzken
Dubai
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £61,250
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12
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
Sold for £457,250
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13
This lot is no longer available.
14
George Condo
Woman in Blue Chair
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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15
Damien Hirst
Wretched War
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 Ω♠
Sold for £325,250
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16
Andreas Gursky
Jumeirah Palm
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ♠
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17
Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Attese
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,049,250
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18
Roni Horn
When Dickinson Shut Her Eyes, no. 1259
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000
Sold for £121,250
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19
Richard Prince
My Funny Valentine
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £181,250
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20
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (HALF-EATEN)
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £181,250
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21
Ahmed Alsoudani
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £229,250
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22
Walead Beshty
FedEx® Kraft Box© 2005: FedEx Standard Overnight Los Angeles–New York, trk# 8675 2590 1103; FedEx Standard Overnight New York–Washington, trk# 8631 3319 4523, date April 13–14 2009; FedEx Standard Overnight Washington–Miami, trk# 7950 0886 1541, date July 26–27 2011; International Priority Miami–London, trk # 8439 1188 5383, date January 11–13, 2012
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
Sold for £58,850
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23
John Armleder
Alchemilla Vulgaris
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £55,250
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24
Damien Hirst
Sensation
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡♠
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25
Alex Katz
Ada on Green
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000
Sold for £229,250
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26
Olafur Eliasson
The Path Series
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
Sold for £68,450
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27
Raymond Pettibon
Untitled (The view from beyond the breakers)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
Sold for £157,250
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

16 February 2012 London

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

10

Thomas Schütte

Gelber Hund

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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16 February 2012
London