Ganz große Geister / Big Spirits XL

Thomas Schütte’s bronze sculptures are roughly three meters high; however, they don’t seem the least bit lofty, as one might expect of traditional statues. Instead, they appear more like toy figurines or beings from a foreign star, awkwardly moving and trying out their twisted limbs.
They come from a series of works that the Düsseldorf artist has been developing since the late 80s. At first, he made small figures out of waxed string. Then he dipped these “blanks” into liquid wax and they were realized as Small Spirits in plastic and aluminum. From there, various oversized examples emerged in aluminum, bronze, and steel.
The three bronze Spirits in Essen are on permanent loan from the Essen art collector Thomas Olbricht.

Further reading:
Public Art Ruhr. Die Metropole Ruhr und die Kunst im öffentlichen Raum. Eds. Walter Smerling and Ferdinand Ulrich on behalf of the RuhrKunstMuseen, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-8632-134-0, p. 166.