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German artist Thomas Schütte (b. 1954) was for a long time known primarily for his architecturally themed models and objects. Only more recently has attention focused upon Schütte’s parallel and equally rich body of work in sculpture and drawing, which is centered upon the human figure. This facet of his oeuvre forms the starting point of the exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, which shows Thomas Schütte as one of the most unusual and fascinating artists of his generation. Taking up the tradition of figurative sculpture, Schütte creates figures and heads that assert their irrevocable place in the present, both in their immediacy and their manufacture. Whether ceramics the size of a hand or steel sculptures four meters high, the figures and heads by Thomas Schütte are in a strange way at once foreign and familiar, and engage us at a directly personal level.