Thomas Schütte (b. 1954)

Jubilantly fixed atop a wooden plinth are two cherries in Thomas Schütte’s playful juxtaposition Kirschensäule, Modell 1:5, 1987. Part of a multimedia series, Untitled served as prototype for Schütte’s contemporaneous monumental Kirschensäule, or cherry column, for Harsewinkelplatz in Münster. Like a modern day triumphal column, the Kirschensäule has become a landmark and a gathering point, helping to revitalize the neighbourhood’s urban fabric. Much of Schütte’s artistic career has been fascinated with questions of place and legacy, themes he probes in his architectural models and site-specific propositions: ‘I like the small scale of the model because you have the whole world inside a room or on a table top’ (T. Schütte quoted in J. Lingwood, Thomas Schütte, New York, 1998, p. 25). Kirschensäule, Modell 1:5 challenges the belief that an enduring monumentality is achievable and instead celebrates the joy and drollness of life as it is.