 |
|
|
 The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia is currently presenting a show by Ron Mueck, a hyperrealist sculptor. Entertaining, shocking and awe inspiring, no human could view this show without it having an impact. Does that make it great art? Mueck dances very near the edge of cliché and yet there is definitely something more. Simply attempting purely representational art in an abstract age is begging for ridicule. Duane Hansen (1925-1996) followed a similar line with his hyperrealist sculpture and took heat from some critics. Hansen’s work was hauntingly real and always life size, often being mistaken, for an instant for the living. With Mueck’s work this would never happen. Although his pieces are far more "real" than Hansen’s they are never to scale and this simple fact makes much more of an impact than one would expect. Mueck grew up making toys and gravitated to movies and television as a model maker. He quickly became a master of the craft known as animatronics and made some well known figures including Ludo, the gentle giant from the David Bowie film, Labyrinth (he provided the voice, as well). He was commissioned to do a model of Pinocchio that was such a hit that trying his hand at art seemed a natural progression. Mueck admits that he is not driven by art and has been accused of being simply a fine craftsman. |
 |
|
|
|
"Dead Dad" was Mueck’s breakout work and
is included in the Melbourne show. This piece is a two thirds scale
presentation of Mueck’s father laid out unsentimentally on the
floor. Stunningly, achingly real, the figure is most decidedly dead.
He has captured the pallor, and character of the body that was a
short time ago alive. The flesh appears supple and yet has lost the
vibrant feel of living tissue. (I am sure if it were touched it
would be hard and cold). Mueck is a master craftsman, without doubt. Scale is critical with all his works. If they were presented life size they would be diminished. A less successful work of art but equally shocking piece is "Girl", an eighteen foot newborn fetus. She has just emerged from the womb and has one eye barely starting to open and become aware. A toddler viewing the piece was fascinated with the umbilicus protruding the belly. It was delightful to see his mother pull up his shirt, point to his pico and give a few word explanation of his origin. His reaction was both revulsion and laughter, perfect! |
|
|
|
Mueck’s work would be completely
hollow if it were not for his uncanny ability to show us at our most
vulnerable. The works are extremely emotional, yet not the raw drama
of the traumatic side of life but the subtle pensive side. The
twenty two foot "Woman in Bed" could easily be dismissed as a waste
of space until a close look at her eyes reveal a sadness that is
palpable. Once she locks on with her gaze she will not let go and
insists that the viewer share her melancholia. Originally from Melbourne, Mueck has worked in London for twenty years. He proceeds from drawings to small works and then chooses the scale that suits a particular piece. Large pieces require substantial steel armatures that are filled out with different materials including Styrofoam then finished in clay. This clay model is then used to create a mold that results in a cast resin figure. This piece is then manipulated, painted and added to until it is perfectly anatomically correct down to the pours. The hair is sometimes glued on. For large pieces each hair is glued into a drilled hole. The process is painstaking and extremely meticulous. |
 |
"Two Women" is a simple portrait of two elderly women in coats, maybe on the street or at the market seemingly engaged in conversation. They commiserate on the aches and pains, regrets and sadness of getting old. The fact that they are three feet tall adds to the illusion because they definitely seem like they might suddenly turn and walk away from one another. |
| Is this great art? Certainly it brings the question of what constitutes great art to the fore. This is popular art. Is that a black mark against it? Jonathan Jones of The Guardian says, "Come to Mueck with a nuanced sense of what art is and you will recognize that he is really just a model-maker." And that his work is "a flimsy, gimcrack charade." Most critics disagree with him, though and heap it with praise. At the very least it should be seen. |
 |
Through April |
|
|
|
|
|
