Ron Mueck: Making Sculpture at the National Gallery, London
19 March - 22 June 2003
Ron Mueck was invited to become the National Gallery’s fifth Associate Artist in 1999, with the brief of making new work in response to the collection and this exhibition marks the culmination of his time at the Gallery. Ron Mueck is a London-based Australian-born sculptor whose extraordinary skills and manipulations of scale have produced a remarkable body of work as surprising as it is unsettling. A sculptor of the human figure, Ron Mueck has produced four new works for this exhibition, loosely related by the theme of birth and motherhood.
His career as a fine artist began when his small sculpture, 'Dead Dad' was exhibited to much critical acclaim, as part of the 'Sensation' exhibition held at the Royal Academy in 1997. Ron Mueck had worked for many years producing special effects for the film and television industry and the techniques he now uses draw heavily on the skills that he acquired during this time.
Ron Mueck starts by making an initial model of his figures in clay, from which he takes a mould and then casts out the finished pieces in silicone and fibre-glass. His work is highly realistic, with individual hairs appearing to grow through the skin, and moles, veins and blemishes that look entirely convincing. His figures seem to breathe and think and feel. However, their uncanny realism is tempered with unexpected and startling alterations of scale that can have a deep psychological effect on the spectator.
While at the Gallery, Ron Mueck was particularly struck by the fact that the infant Christ is almost always represented in paintings as a strangely unrealistic baby. As a result, he began to investigate the subject of birth and babies within his own work. 'Mother and Child', is a small and intense sculpture that shows a mother with her newborn infant, just a few seconds after its birth. 'Pregnant Woman' is a work that stands at around eight feet high. It shows a woman at the very end of her term, weighed down both literally and metaphorically by the burden she carries within her. 'Swaddled Baby' is a tiny infant securely wrapped and placed gently on a pillow. They are beautiful and poignant works that add a further dimension to this highly traditional subject of birth and motherhood. Finally, 'Man in a Boat' makes use of a battered old rowing boat in which Ron Mueck has placed a small figure of a naked man who cranes his neck as if trying to see what lies ahead.
Central to the Associate Artist scheme is the idea of making new works in response to the art of the past. The first Associate Artist was Paula Rego, in 1990. Since then Ken Kiff, Peter Blake, Ana Maria Pacheco and now Ron Mueck, have held the position. The artist is given a studio in the gallery, that he or she occasionally opens to the public. The artist also meets with pre-booked groups of art students to discuss the work they are making.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
