Ron Muech – Hyper Realist Sculptor
There is a point, when sculpturing, at witch taking great care of details leads to creating hyper realistic artwork that cannot be set apart from the real world objects it is supposed to represent. Ron Muech sculptures are just that, extraordinary realistic work that seems real even after looking at it for the tenth time.
About the artist:
Ron Mueck was born on 1958 is an Australian hyper realist sculptor working in Great Britain. Mueck’s early career was as a model maker and puppeteer for children’s television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo.
Mueck moved on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry.
Although highly detailed, these props were usually designed to be photographed from one specific angle hiding the mess of construction seen from the other side. Mueck increasingly wanted to produce realistic sculptures which looked perfect from all angles.
In 1996 Mueck transitioned to fine art, collaborating with his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, to produce small figures as part of a tableau she was showing at the Hayward Gallery. Rego introduced him to Charles Saatchi who was immediately impressed and started to collect and commission work.
This led to the piece which made Mueck’s name, Dead Dad, being included in the Sensation show at the Royal Academy the following year. Dead Dad is a rather haunting silicone and mixed media sculpture of the corpse of Mueck’s father reduced to about two thirds of its natural scale. It is the only work of Mueck’s that uses his own hair for the finished product.
Mueck’s sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. His five metre high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale.
In 2002 his sculpture Pregnant Woman was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for $800,000.
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Jimmy–
Have you ever seen this work in person?
The n*ked giant-man (p2) is in D.C., and the level of detail coupled with the scale of the sculpture was really surreal. I took a picture with my phone (trying to convince people to go to art galleries with me…), and just as I did a double-take (a triple take… maybe a quadruple take…) in the museum, I did a double-take every time I flipped past that picture to find a different one in my phone.
The imagery really IS hyper-real, and its unfortunate that some of the “oomph” of these pieces is missing when you see photos of them online. So while I find that the adolescent boy here looks a little “off” in terms of proportion, and the black woman’s face seems to be lacking in some detail, overall the sculptures really ARE “hyper-realistic,” and the effect is only enhanced if you have the opportunity to see the pieces in person.
Truely awesome, never seen anything like this before. very well done.
its so amazing….very nice creative
To be considered hyper-realistic, the artist needs to make the hair detail look like actual hair, not just painted on ie) spooning couple. As well, the primate foot close-up doesn’t show any scaling of the skin on the heel as you would expect to see on a real animal.
While I recognize the artist for his dedication to his style of work, as a critic, I see some failing in the representation of his intended subjects.
AMAZING WOW.
Thanks
Saw some of this series of his work at the Aberdeen Art Gallery a few weeks ago, was excellent. The model of the couple is especially moving when seen up close, they are so small and cold looking, so unloving and distant.
The giant baby girl was there too, incredible and incredibly huge yet I think it is the most life-like model of his that I saw.
The one with the couple spooning looks like the two are related.