Tomas Schmit
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Tomas Schmit (born 13 July 1943 in Thier, now part of Wipperfürth, died 4 October 2006 in Berlin, Germany) was an artist and author, one of the pioneers of the Fluxus movement of the early 1960s. During the subsequent 40 years, he developed a ramified work of drawings, texts, books and concepts of artists' books. From the late 1960s until his death, he continuously exhibited in international galleries. With his series of drawings, he is represented in renowned museums and collections (among them Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Collection Harald Falckenberg, Hamburg). His works are represented by the galleries Michael Werner in Cologne / New York, Marlene Frei in Zurich, Rudolf Springer and Barbara Wien in Berlin and the Edition Armin Hundertmark. The Tomas Schmit Archive is dedicated to the artists research and practice and his friendships with collaborators and friends, for instance Peter and Christa Brötzmann, Addi and Tut Koepcke, Nam June Paik, Evan Parker, Andrea Tippel and Emmett Williams.
Career
Tomas Schmit has played a considerable role in shaping the radical questioning of civil art and approaches to new aesthetics. It was his correspondence with George Maciunas that made a theoretical discussion on the political and aesthetic concept of the Fluxus period possible. As an artist, he took part in Fluxus events that are nowadays considered milestones in the art of the 1960s. As organiser, he arranged for the legendary event "20th July TU Aachen" 1964 (with Beuys, Köpcke, Vostell, Paik amongst others). In 1982, in the book 1962 Wiesbaden Fluxus 1982, he wrote the theoretical text "about f" which represents one of the rare profound evaluations of the ideas of Fluxus from the artist's perspective. Friends and colleagues who he worked with and who appreciated him due to his consequent artistic position and wrote about him, include Nam June Paik, George Brecht, Arthur Köpcke, Ludwig Gosewitz and Dieter Roth – just to mention a few. In 1982, Dieter Roth adjudged him the scholarship of the Rembrandt-Prize which had been awarded to him. In 1986, the Kurt-Schwitters-Prize of the City Hanover was awarded to Schmit.
Tomas Schmit pulled out of the active Fluxus actions early, as he was against an adulteration of the radical potential. It is also this potential which his probably most important working principle is based on:
"what I learned from f., along with many other things: what can be mastered by a sculpture, doesn't have to be erected as a building; what can be brought by a painting, doesn't have to be made as a sculpture; what can be accomplished in a drawing, doesn't have to become a painting; what can be cleared on a scrap of paper, doesn't need to be done as a drawing; and what can be settled in the head, doesn't even require a paper scrap!".
In the following decades, he developed works that comprise several thousand drawings. He published editions and books. His main topics are language, logic, paradoxes, biology, cybernetics, cerebral research, behaviour research and apperception theory. In 1989, his book "first draft (of central aesthetics)" provided an introduction to cerebral research, which the cyberneticist Valentin Braitenberg characterized in the following way:
"I actually intend to recommend this book when some physicist or whatever other beginner, as it often happens, will again ask me for an introduction to cerebral research. I suppose, it took a poet to grasp the charm of the material access to psychology, including the pleasure in self-critical accuracy. Consequently, the book is an antipode to what ever so often annoys you: the belittling of events and concealment of problems that popular science uses to ingratiate with the people – but, thus, only shows its disrespect for the audience."
In addition to his early performance and solo actions, editions, drawings, contributions to magazines, critical essays and artist books, Schmit has also published four catalogues of works that are all compiled as artistic self-commentaries and have been published alongside major solo exhibitions (1978: Kölnischer Kunstverein / Art Society Cologne; 1987: DAAD Gallery, Berlin, Sprengel Museum, Hanover; 1997: Portikus, Frankurt; 2007: Ludwig Museum, Cologne, and the Falckenberg Collection Hamburg).
The last publication that Tomas Schmit prepared has been released in 2008 and will soon be rerealesed by Wiens Verlag in English language with additional materials. Entitled "13 Montaggespräche" (Mengl.: Monday Talks), the publication is based on 13 interviews with the artist conducated by the art historian Wilma Lukatsch, which focus around his life, artistic princples, selected works and colleborations.
Most recent exhibitions include a project about Tomas Schmi and his legacy organised by the Neuer Berlin Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in collaboration with the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Arsenal - Institute for Film and Viseo Art, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Art and the tomas schmit archive, curated by Marius Babias, Krisztina Hunya and Dr. Jenny Graser. It will be held at various locations in Berlin from September 2021 till January 2022.
Catalogue Raisonné
- Katalog 1. Koelnischer Kunstverein 1978.
- Katalog 2. Daadgalerie Berlin und Sprengelmuseum Hannover 1987.
- Katalog 3. Portikus, Frankfurt/Main 1997.
- Katalog 4. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König 2007.
