Ron Mueck's sculpture and Humanism

Mask II (2002) Ron Mueck

A girl (2006) Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck has become internationally recognised for his unique sculptures, which replicate the human figure with unrivalled technical skill. His work has a powerful psychological range, focusing not only on universal experiences like birth, life and death but on emotional states such as isolation, fear and tenderness. His startling manipulations of scale are key to our experience of each work.

Mueck's work showed at the Christchurch Art Gallery from the end of 2010 through to January 2011. Research Mueck's sculpture in order to answer the following questions;

1. Mueck's sculpture is described as 'hyper-real'. Define the meaning of this term and explain how it is evident in his work.

In painting and sculpture , the word "Hyperrealism" describes a photorealistic rendering of people, landscapes, and scenes. Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Mueck's work focuses much more of its emphasis on details and the subjects, faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images.  Mueck's lifelike sculptures are scaled much larger or smaller than life and finished in incredibly convincing detail through the meticulous use of polyester resins and multiple molds.

2. Mueck says he is not interested in making life size sculpture. Find out why he is more interested in working with the scale of the figure which is not life size, and mention 2 works which use scale that is either larger or smaller than life.

 According to Sculpture Magazine article，Mueck says “It makes you take notice in a way that you wouldn't do with something that's just normal.”  Above all, Mueck is a master at orchestrating tensions that both attract and estrange.His figures invite close-up inspection of blemishes, hairs, veins, and expression, taking you on a psycho-topographical journey.If you stare long and deeply enough, you experience a horrific beauty. Mueck's works command an uncanny ability to amaze with obsessive surface detail and intense psychic discharge.

Youth (2009),Diminutive figure (65 cm high) of black youth, holding up his T-shirt to examine a wound in his belly.

Mask III (2005),Huge (1.5 metre tall) face of a black woman.

3. Define Renaissance Humanism , and identify which aspects of Humanism can be seen in Mueck's work. Note that the contemporary definition of Humanism is much broader than the Renaissance definition.

Humanism (the philosophy that people are rational beings) became quite popular during the Renaissance.The dignity and worth of the individual was emphasized.

Mueck's work reproduce the minute detail of the human body who didn't wear any clothes to present  the nature way that human beings are exist in the world. 

4. Research and discuss one of Mueck's sculptures that you might find challenging or exciting to experience in an art gallery. Describe the work, upload an image of the work, and explain your personal response to the work. Comment on other student blogs to develop the discussion around the variety of our own personal and individual responses to art and design.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality