Tomas Schmit
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22.01.2017

Tomas Schmit (1943-2006) is one of the pioneers of the Fluxus movement. In addition to his actions, Tomas Schmit also worked with language and text and began drawing at the end of the 1960s. Over the course of around four decades, he created a large number of individual drawings, editions, original reproductions of drawing series, books, texts and a film entitled “e-constellations”. In terms of content, he dealt with questions such as “how does a chameleon know what color it should be?” or “can people think”, mostly observations and phenomena from evolution, brain and behavioral research or perception and linguistic logic. Tomas Schmit’s artistic reflections were not only highly recognized in the art world through solo exhibitions at the Kunstverein Hamburg (1977), the Kölnischer Kunstverein (1978), the Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne and New York (1986 and 1994), the DAAD Galerie Berlin and the Sprengel Museum Hannover (1987), the Kunsthalle Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (1997) and posthumously at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg (2007), as well as his participation in documenta 6 in Kassel (1977). Renowned scientists also paid him respect. For example, in 1990 the cyberneticist Prof. Dr. Braitenberg recommended Tomas Schmit’s book “Erster entwurf (einer zentral ästhetik)” to “physicists and other beginners” in a review in the specialist journal “Spektrum der Wissenschaft” as an “introduction to brain science”. In this respect, Tomas Schmit is also one of the most prominent pioneers in the relationship between fine art and science, which is currently enjoying a revival.

His last solo exhibition took place in 2005 at the Kunstverein Bremerhaven. Tomas Schmit has his own room in the Kunstmuseum.