Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor at Brooklyn Museum
The exhibition “Ron Mueck” includes about 15 mixed media works on loan from the artist’s collection, major museums, and private collections. Mueck employs imitation and illusion to explore the ambiguous relationship between reality and artifice, creating figures that express the contradictions between the real world and the imaginary. The figures seem to be alive: every detail – veins, wrinkles, moles, body hair, rashes – is crafted to such perfection that the result is remarkably convincing and deeply troubling. The size of the works – always smaller or larger than human scale – is equally disconcerting.
Ron Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne, Australia, to parents who were toy makers, he labored on children’s television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as “Labyrinth,” a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.
His work, while proportionally correct, is either over or under-sized. For example, an enormous 4.5m crouching Boy, a 3 ft tall naked man, a 20 ft long newborn, a replica of his own head (seen above) 6 times its actual size. Consequently his hyper-realistic sculptures, while extraordinarily lifelike, challenge us by their odd scale. The “psychological confrontation for the viewer is to recognize and assimilate two contradictory realities”. However, the real magical appeal of Mueck’s sculptures lie in the meticulous process, which begins with…
October 31, 2007 - Category: Art, Featured Articles - Posted by: Chantal - Comments: 82
November 7th, 2007 at 7:28 am
[...] I think i may have to go to the Brooklyn Museum to see this… I am very intrigued… [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
This is some of the most intriguing work I’ve ever seen in my life. Amazing!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
[...] Here’s some very odd looking sculptors involving the elderly. http://cubeme.com/blog/2007/10/31/ron-mueck-hyper-realist-sculptor-at-brookliyn-museum/#more-3630 [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Amazing work
November 7th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
[...] Look at more. [...]
November 8th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
i admire his work! he has mad skill.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Ron’s work is unmistakably the most incredible there is in the hyper-realism field!I have admired his work all the way back to his puppetry days.Did you know he worked on the movie Labrynth with David Bowie?
November 9th, 2007 at 10:11 am
there are no words for his talent…
November 12th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Awesome realism!
November 13th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
LOVE THIS GUYS STUFF!
November 14th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Height of imagination…Realism in details…Scaring….
November 14th, 2007 at 1:24 am
High in imagination as well as in rendering details…
November 14th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Did anyone notice how none of the characters look healthy or happy – is this maybe what’s striking a chord with us?
November 14th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
[...] Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor [...]
November 14th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
[...] Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor [...]
November 14th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
He’s such a genius!!!! I’m wowed!!
November 14th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
warhol with talent….
November 16th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I love how vulnerable they all are…esp the crouching man, women under the sheets and the man in the corner. Even in the couple sleeping you see signs of fear and humanity, and the pain we feel sharing it with others. Worse the pain of confronting it alone. The only ones who seems confidant at all are the pregnant women from the movie..and the artist himself who glares like a mighty Oz.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
We have also speak about Ron Mueck in our italian blog!
November 18th, 2007 at 1:49 am
I sit in awe of your skill, what a wonderful eye you have for color.
November 19th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
[...] CubeMe » Blog Archive » Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor at Brookliyn Museum (tags: art sculpture mueck) [...]
November 25th, 2007 at 1:45 am
It gave me chills…how realistic!
November 28th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
The work is wonderfully creative – it reveals so many emotions – not just the subject. Very thought provoking – it kindles a connection!
November 29th, 2007 at 3:59 am
I am kinda weirded out by this, but I must say this is phenomenal.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I went to the brooklyn museum to see it when the exhibition opened up- it’s even better in person than in these photos
December 1st, 2007 at 1:24 am
i really admire his work, not just for his great skill, but also his perspective. i see a lot behind the expressions, and i like to see that an artist put a lot of thought into his/her work.
perhaps the fact that no one really appears healthy and perfect adds to the realism?
my favorite is the crouching kid. (i just realized that is the one the closest to my age. how predictable! gaah.)
December 6th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
AMAZING WORK!!!!!!
December 14th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
In een woord geweldig!!!
December 25th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Just Great..wonderful..Amazing..
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
this is so amazing, I hope they will show it in Berlin / Germany one day;-)
Léonie.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I think he worked with David Bowie in some strange movie – just can’t remember the name, but it was a phantasy film.
January 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
His work is so realistic it could freak me out.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Any exhibition in Europe during this year?
January 25th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
For people in teh UK, there is one of his pieces at the Tate Liverpool, called ‘Ghost’ worth checking out – its part of the permanent collection.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Wow…I’d really like to see a real exhibition. Amazing stuff.
January 27th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
i think these are some of the most amazing pieces of art I have ever seen in my life. you are truly blessed with a gift…
February 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
To me it is necessary to find
March 4th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
[...] in a similar ‘hyper-realistic’ sculptural style to Ron Mueck, Canadian artist Evan Penny examines the terrain between the real and the replica and our [...]
March 8th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Unbelievable!
March 16th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Those are amazing sculptures – not only are they lifelike, they look a little scary really.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:04 am
[...] On this April 1st… I want you to tell ME what’s wrong with these pictures… other than the fact that they freak me out!!! and if you thought that was bad… check out these morbid sculptures! [...]
April 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Wow freaky!
April 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
These are mesmerizing!
April 24th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Totally unreal,he is a genius from “out there”.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
The miracle of the ordinary!
Seeing not just looking!
Another fantastic artist from my home town.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:02 am
wow, these are amazing. definitely worth going to see in person.
July 4th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I like how every piece looks worried or disconnected.
These are amazing.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Finally, REAL art.I am so tired of the conceptualist shit as an excuse for creativity,most notably, the street dog that was tied to the gallery wall and left to strave to death and people watched it suffer!!!
Thank you, Ron Merck, so much for your work, it restores my faith in the creative soul.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
the virtual viewing of his work was an experience in itself!
July 25th, 2008 at 5:46 am
There is no doubt about them. Certainly, they were created by a splendid brain
July 31st, 2008 at 1:17 am
Absolutely amazing….. a bit scary too….
August 27th, 2008 at 4:21 am
they are soooooooooo cool they are absolutely amazing and original they were definately created by a splendid maybe troubled brain!!!!!
August 27th, 2008 at 4:24 am
hi i strongly agree to what you are all saying and i am going to add i love them they are so splendid and wonderful different but amazing i think that they definately should be considered as art work (even though it already is) not like some scribble or boxes like i have seen in art books in visual art class.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Wow!!! Unbelievable!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Wow!!! This man is a really talented artist. It is incredible seeing the evolution of art in the human mind and the possibilities we can achieve driven by passion, determination, creativity,and many other qualities. I am really amazed not only on the details of every piece but the scale. Can you imagine the time it takes to do this type of work?Incredible!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Wow!!! This man is a really talented artist. It is incredible seeing the evolution of art in the human mind and the possibilities we can achieve driven by passion, determination, creativity,and many other qualities. I am really amazed not only on the details of every piece but the scale. Can you imagine the time it takes to do this type of work?Incredible!!!
September 27th, 2008 at 8:37 am
hi ..i saw your sculptures i like your works seriously . it was amazing.. i am also a sculptor doing bachelor of fine arts in sculpture field. i want to ask you some thing i am from india and i want to study in australia so please tell me what is the scope of sculptures in australia. and please suggest me what will i do after completing of my education? thnx
September 29th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I saw an exhibition of this work in Edinburgh 2006, without wanting to sound too pretentious, one of these pieces changed my life. Whilst I was both amazed and enthralled by the detail and realism of his pieces, the emotion conveyed to me by the two figures in bed, but not sleeping, together but separated.
It both scared and energized me regarding my relationship at the time. Those two people were plastic but in many ways more real than me. It made me realize that i either had to change something in my relationship or no longer be in it (after 6 years of two young lives.)
This man is an amazing artist in every sense of the word and in my opinion is as good at portraying the human condition as he is the human form (and if you have looked at the pictures or his work you will appreciate just how exemplary his work is.)
Thank you, for sharing your gift and in site as painful as it may have been to come across or realize (as in my case.)
Thank you
October 13th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
My cousin emailed me pictures of Ron’s work.
I was absoloutley enthralled by them.
I live in Australia and have never heard or seen his stuff before.
Wonderful work!
October 18th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
All the people who’ve left these corny-ass messages on this site, trying to sound “creative” or even “literate”, are pathetic. Really, it just makes me sad to think that your votes are counted as equal to mine.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:19 am
this guy deserves every plaudit that goes his way……extraordinary talent!
October 29th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
yeah, i think we saw the ‘big man’ sculpture in Washington DC a few years ago.
very impressive…
October 31st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
These sculptures are beautiful… and Art Prof your comment is less than worthless. I’m an artist and I would never condescend to think my “vote” or viewpoint counted for more than any other person. Why did you feel the need to post except to ridicule and sound like the pompous idiot you obviously are? Beauty (and art) is in the eye of the beholder, after all. Where are your eloquent words?
November 27th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
The people are amazing–but it’s their CLOTHES that fascinate me–the cloth in those coats–I have KNOWN those coats (from my childhood 5o some years ago—!) The sweater the one woman wears–that it fits–both in size and –it JUST IS exactly the sweater that I would expect on her– shoes, hair–every detail– To sculpt the PEOPLE is ONE thing–and SO much CHARACTER in each face and how they are posed! but does the artist ALSO knit, sew, cobble shoes?!!!!!
November 29th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
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December 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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January 18th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
[...] Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor at Brooklyn Museum. [...]
February 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Big Up Art Prof. What a bunch of saps you creepy toads are – lifelike representations scaled up or down – genius schmenious !
February 6th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
OMG this is amazing WOW GREAT JUST GREAT
February 20th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Really rather good. These resting representations of reality are truly wonderful…
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 am
[...] http://www.cubebe.com/blog Tags: artist, creepy, sculpture [...]
April 7th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
[...] http://www.cubebe.com/blog [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 10:26 am
amazing. what a great mind the artist has. very interesting indeed.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
H:
Interesting pictures. The picture of the baby in particular. I must say, it is an interesting “copy” of a “human” baby? This is the best he could choose from?
I interpret this likeness to be for a Halloween prank, or a birth control method. Much money could be saved if all homes had this “baby,” The thought alone would cause a drop in world population if everyone had one of these. I’m going to have nightmares for a lonnng time.
September 7th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Wow what awesome work, I really enjoyed looking at these it gave me a kind of Lliliput feeling. Excellent stuff.
September 18th, 2009 at 6:18 am
[...] Truly unnerving This entry was written by raptorattack, posted on 18/09/2009 at 11:17, filed under Theory. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Visual Acoustics [...]
September 20th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Just seen a couple of these pieces in Aberdeen today. While they are incredible in the photos, it doesnt compare to the pieces in real life! It took a lot of work not to reach out and touch them, expecting the skin to feel real and warm. Absolutely unbelievable, beautiful and amazing. If you ever have the opportunity, go and see them!! You wont regret it!
September 24th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
HELLO TAMBEM TRABALHO NA CRIAÇAO DE ESCULTURAS MAS NADA QUE CHEGUE A TANTO.MAGUINIFICO!
November 29th, 2009 at 1:09 am
very cool..
December 19th, 2009 at 9:06 am
c’est du dejas vu……….depuis 1900
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
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February 6th, 2010 at 1:46 am
I didn’t look to see if anything was said about this but, he did the voice for Ludo in the movie Labyrinth. Just a little fun fact