Michael Kutsche is a self-taught German painter, character designer and digital artist who blends visual elements from centuries-spanning art movements with mythical creatures, historical figures and pop culture into evocative paintings and animations that read as fragments of anachronistic fairy tales. His work raises questions about the human condition and nostalgia, inviting a fresh look at past and present.
Kutsche has been drawing since early childhood and, rather than attending art or film school, began his career with an internship at a 3D animation house, working in visual effects from 1998 onward. After moving from 3D animation into illustration and picking up commissioned work for Sega in London, he was discovered by a Sony Imageworks visual-effects producer who was scouting artists for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. His test piece, a photorealistic caterpillar creature, won Burton's approval, and Kutsche went on to work with him first in Berlin and London and later on set in Los Angeles. For the film he drew on Flemish Renaissance and medieval painting as well as John Tenniel and Arthur Rackham's original Alice in Wonderland illustrations. He went on to design characters for John Carter, The Jungle Book, Oz the Great and Powerful and Thor. He has said he is particularly proud of the White Apes he designed for John Carter and of China Girl for Oz the Great and Powerful, a puppeteered doll built by Philip Huber that served as reference for the CG character's performance.
