A GENEALOGICAL BLUES WALL– Thomas Schütte
16.08.2025
What a surprise to discover this within the ongoing Thomas Schütte exhibition at Punta della Dogana.
A magnificent wall that can be considered genealogical, telling the history of blues. Indeed, displayed on it are portraits of musicians who can be considered precursors of this musical genre and who influenced upcoming generations and even other musical genres such as rock and its variation, rock and roll.
The wall features 7 portraits of: Bukka White, B.B. King, Mississippi John Hurt, Elmore James, Guitar Slim, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed.
All portraits were created in the same year, 2018.
Their presence and display within an exhibition entitled “Genealogies” is poetic.
The outstanding significance of these portraits emerges from the fact that Thomas Schütte was assertive in capturing the symbolic idea of who these musicians became and their voices, rather than just focusing on drawing their physical characteristics.
Their predominantly blue backgrounds don’t just give the drawings a refined taste – this is especially appreciated when keeping in mind the larger concept encapsulated within the exhibition title “Genealogies.”
The genealogical idea on the wall is represented not only by the fact that these blues musicians played in different eras, but also by the several connections that these drawings enable viewers to make.
For example, one connection that certain viewers might inevitably make is to Miles Davis’s album “Kind of Blue.”
Also,stepping back and considering the drawings together, we see what Foucault would call a ‘genealogy’ – not a linear progression, but a complex web of influences, breaks, and transformations that shaped blues as a cultural practice and knowledge system.
Doing some steps backwards and considering the drawings together emerges a reality that Michael Foucault termed as “ the unity of discourse” and is exactly “ the permanence and uniqueness of an [drawing] on the space “that that make possible the existence of the “Genealogical Blues Wall.
The Thomas Schütte exhibition, will be on display until November 23rd of 2025 at the Punta della Dogana, Venice.
Artworsk captation: Blues Men, 2018, watercolor and ink on Arches paper.
WAYS OF WORLDMAKING – Tatiana Trouvé
28.07.2025
I have been positively surprised by seeing the mixed media work done by Tatiana Trouvé, in which one part incorporates Nelson Goodman’s book entitled “Ways of Worldmaking.”
That book surprised and inspired me greatly! It was like a world of ideas opened up to me through that book.
So, seeing it as part of Tatiana Trouvé’s installation was something wonderful to witness.
The most interesting thing is how it was included in the installation. Inside a blue crochet bag that allows the viewer to see its contents, and most interestingly, read the title and the author’s name.
Like the title of the book, this mixed media work was also an attempt to create a world. A world made of different layers, each requiring—as almost all contemporary artworks do—that the viewer has at least basic tools to open it up and fully acquire its encoded meaning.
This consideration makes it evident that Trouvé has created a world that goes far beyond the one we see hanging on the wall. And as Nelson Goodman aptly stated: “The one world may be taken as many, or the many worlds taken as one; whether one or many depends on the way of taking.” (Goodman, 1978, 2)
Indeed, within the exhibition there are many living worlds waiting to be discovered in each exhibition room.
Artwork caption: Nelson, 2021, Painted bronze, marble and onyx marquetry. 54×27×4cm
Unexpected-Viewer 