Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RP5 Ron Mueck 05s
RP5 Ron Mueck 05s
E
:::
Er
.:
'j= 'l
--.=--
r
Ron Mueck at the National Gallery
Ron Mueck's lngel rnade in rgg7, is a small rraked figure with an impressive
pair of feathered wings. Seated on a stool, he strikes a thoughtful and slightly
il"aq; melancholy pose. The scale of the figure is less incongruous than other Mueck
*'na sculptures, as it is perhaps easier to accept the apparent miniaturisation of a
Iigure purportingto come from another rl'orld. As with Mueck's other pieces,
however, there is still the compulsion to examine the figure's surface as closely
as possible, to scrutinise every detail. The rvings are made of goose feathers and
are utterly convincing: if angels do exist, it might not be a surprise to find they
louk like
this.
lzgel
tr'enus
?t"o,o" ,
'TnLn;-L
' 7t*,.lus
/-f
o?LL
I
has German roots. His
mother arrd
father were both German, and
emigrated to Australia before Mueck
was born. The language of his
childhood home was German.
Comparison of Mue ck's Dead Dad.
(page 45) with The Painter's Father
(page 5g), attributed to Diirer, is
instructive. The surface detail in both
works is focused upon minutiae, the
iil*,.. ;XlitflJ,i.tilr'I;f
^
Pirc^rL trJ"i thataretoop vate and personal to entrust to anorher pair of hands.
p.*a h al:, Occasionally Mueck will use an assisrant for those jobJwhere there are no
.'- ,,*r4creatrve chorces to be made_ A n assistant might, for
example, be ent xted with
Q;n,,to
ffi::
,4n .1U2Eo.!
t-ndor
ilaleil
of its meaning. Hc seenis ro fiel a psycholodcal bond wirh the pieces he makes,
to forgc arr intimate rclarionship that excludes any third party. The artist,s
reluctance. rcfusal cr.cn. to discuss these issues which he considers of no
to
anyone
concern
else is itself of interest.
Mueck's process is r.elativeiy conventional. Initial ideas are tested with
small plastermaqucttes. and the final piece begins with a sculpture made of
clay For the smaller \\'orks, this is supported with a wire armature of exactly
the sarne type that l)egas, for example, used for his rvax sculptures. For the
bigger picces, the clay sculpttrre is supported by a large assemblage of
scaffolding that is co.r.ered lvith chicken wire and tllen rvrapped in layers of
scrirn soaked in wet plaster l\:hen the clay sculpt is complete, he takes a mould
from it and then casts it out in silicone or fibreglass, to which he has already
added colour. Aside frorn his choice of material for the final piece, this method
is exactly the same as that of Donatello, Rodin orthe
or the ancient Greeks
casting in bronze-
I tdo+qe- ba,
wher ''l,ffi1t
when
ti,r*"rt
l" &
&l
'
AcrAX.U,
oil nd rempra
'l'Ie National
on
wtul
\$o
Gallery, London
&elrr.tzat
y.":
"
'
,fru
quality of Mueck's sculptures leaves the possibility, lurking in the back of one's
mind, that some other, sinister, process has been employed in their creation.
Mueck moved into his National Ga1lery studio in August rg99. The brief
for the Associate Artist is to make work in response to the National Gallery's
collection-Aware of thc danger of pastiche, Mueck was reluctant to force links
or to make literal fanscriptions of National Gallery paintings. At the beginning
of his tenure he carried on working as if he had not moved into the National
Gallery at all, expressing the hope that the collection would influence him
subliminally. During his first monrhs in rhe studio he produced much of the
work for his second solo show at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery, held in zooo.
Mast in Raincoat, Big Man, Mash I and the little wall-mounted -BaDjr (see cover)
weie all made in the National Gallery As he approached the end of his period
of appointnent Mueck expressed disappointment that more explicit links had
not developed. However, despite the artist's reseryations, the themes that he has
dealt with do connect powerfully with the Gallery's collection. Indeed, he cites
the wall-rnounted babies as the first pieces that he made consciously influenced
by his time in the National Gallery. He was particularly struck by arr earlv
sixteenth century altarpiece by Lore.zo Costa and Gianfra n .".oMluin"iiid&M2'
which the Christ Child seems to stand almost completely unsupported by his
molher, as confident, independent and arvare as arry adult. Something of
Ithe same spirit inhabits Mueck's babies. They seen so tiny and fiail, yet rhey
Boiri" convince us that they can feel and think for themselves.
,
'"o1,m-.
u,i^L
LL"u.
is alive, playing her role at the start of life, rather tJral its end. It is Mueck,s
only piece to date to show more than a single figure, nld there_by implies a
relationship, albeit one rhat has hardly had rirne ro form. Mueck has made
prer.ious sculptures of babies on a larger than life scale, so his return to the
subject is not a complete surprise, whereas his frank and unprece<lenred
approach to a traditiorral subject certainly is.
The National Gallery has many paintings thar show the mother and child
theme, most prolifically, of coruse, in rhe guise of the Virgin Mary with the
infant Christ, Nlueck has looked carefully at many of these. A favourite is the
of
tjnd.n
artworks rather than froln life- Fur'thermore, artists were always under pressure
to conform to time honoured arrd salctified patterns, conscious tbat they were
not simply replesenting an ordinary baby.
When Mary and the newborn Christ Child are depicted, the t\Mo characrers
are usually shown as having already formcd a bond: either rhc conventional
mother-and-child relationship of mutual affection and care, or a demonstration
of religious devotion. Mueck's sculpture shows the mother-child bond being
formed in front of our eye-s: the child arrir.ed just seconds ago. It glistens
with mucus, the umbilical cord is still attached, the rnorher's stomach has not
yet begun to contract- The mother remains in the birthing pose, with legs
splayed and knees up. Her body is still tense after the pains of her labour. She
seems unsure about what to do with herhalds and ]ooks down at the child
with an expression verging on the blanktess of shock- 'I'his chilil is hers, of
her flesh, butthe love that she knows she should feel has not yet had time to
ma-nifest itsel f-
as
they succumb to the temptatioD of focusingmore and more upon those parts
Mueck never disputes that his work has autobiographical content- He was
present ar the birh of his two daughters, and it seems inevirable that
he drew
upon these experiencesr profound yet commonplace, when making this
piece.
Technically and tvpically for Muech, ir i s a tour deiforce _ The mother and
child
were cast separarcly, both in libreglass. Fibreglass is hard and has *re
physical
advantage over silicone that any seams still visible after the casting plocess
can
be filed away. However, its rigidiry does not allow the insertion
of indivirlual
mould, this time using silicone. Silicone,s rubber like qualiry enabled rhe
artist
to punch the individual hairs in, one by one, mahing them
look as iI they are
acrually grolving through the skin. Nlueck then removerl the original
fibreglass
face and replaced
problems. The
decision to embark upon a particular sculprure, and then the actual
makinp,of
it, are not two processes: the concept and the rnaking are inseparable. Each new
sculpture presents the atist with another set of problems, often unforeseen.
By solving these problems successfully, the artist cements his emotional bond
with the sculpture-
Man in a Boat
'llrc Man in a Boat
of
a naked
deal explicitly with the rheme of birth and motherhood. However, seen in the
context of the other pieces Nlueck has made for the show rt happrh' takes
place
was unaware of this when he started r rork on tl:e piece, and expressed both
I
I
doubts that the theme of his National Gallery exhibition should be construed as
'birth', preferring instead t-he idea of containment- The irrfant in the womb, tle
Su,ad.dled Baby ard, the ltran in the boat all share a physical
limitation on their
Mueck bought the boat, which was lying derelict, from a group of Sea
Cadets. He.was initially motivated by the necessity of producing a long and
narrow sculpture to fill a particular space for a proposed exhibition in Ne.w York.
'l44ri1e trawling through old skerches looking for ideas, Mueck chanced upon an
drawing of a man in a boat and so the idea was born. As it turned out, the
piece was not linished in time for rhe New York show.
The figure is made from silicone, a choice of material dictated by Mueck's
desire to give him boily hair Accordingly, the artist's principal technieal
difficulty was to cast the sculpture with no visible searas because with silicone,
unlike fibreglass, these cannot be filed away. Mueck rnade the rnould so as to
o1d
Thelmruulat
Cou.prion,
^bont
r6'a
places while drying, and the abutting edges are almost impossible to keep
in
Precise register.
Removing the finished piece from the mould is not an easy process, as
silicone is easily stretched out of position or torn, which rvould render several
weeks' work wasted, ald it was a mornent of high tension when the successful
cast was extracted. Jruithout
righ
IIe
into his work. He looked at the texture of his own skin and tried to lind ways
of maLing an accurate impression of it. In the past he has used his own face to
work from, rrost notably in the over life-size self-portrait Maslt. Ihile rhe
Man in a Boatlooks nothing like t}re artist, it can still be undersrood as havirre
aspects of self-portraiture.
By placing tlre figure in a vessel, the sculpture immediately qains a
narrative aspect, Mueck's earlier single ligure sculptures are in static poses,
either passive or quiet\ introspective. This figure ho*'ever, has his neck slightly
stretched and his quizzical expression irrdicates a curiosity about what lies
ahead. The movement is subtle but it is there, none the less, and gives the ligure
an out.lvard-looking aspect unseen in i\{ueck's previorrs rvork, N'Iueck suggests
rhat this might be because, rvhile rvorking in the National Gallery he was rn
daily contact with a range of different people who would visir his studio irnd
discuss the work in progress, Tvhereas his usual practice is to work in isolation.
The understated naLsre of Man in a Boaa's animation orves somerhing to the
failure of a previous piece. a srnall sculpture of an old woman u.ith r.vide opet
mistake was an atternpt to make a sculpture that freezes arl active pose, rather
than one that implies the potential for activity- Consequently, the neck
rnovenrent of the Maz is so slighr as to be almost unnoticeable.
I'art of making re piece involved deciding exactly wltere in the boat rhe
ligure should sit and which rvay he should lace- Each new position openeri up
different possibilities: is he trarclling towards sornewhere, or leaving something
behind? Is he in control of his own desliny or at the u,him of chanc.e? l)oes he
wony about his late or is he indifferent to it? The boat has no means of
propulsion, so the implication is that he is has no control over either his destirry
or destination. However, placing hirn boldly at the front srrggests he is travelling
loruardsandisrurious.whrch.LdC..tctlrerrrrplir:rricn:cIIhcsl:ght1..rra:r:ng
rreck, Nllueck originally intended that the ,|1aa should face backwards and be
seated in the centre of the boat, but rvhen he r.ras placed in the centre, the vessel
seemed to lose its sense of impetus, appeaing becalmed or drifting slo*.ly.
'l his position did nrake rhe formal links w tth the Mothzr and Chikl rnore
apparent, howe\.er- Both works represent small ligures perclted on top of mr.rch
as
taking theln on an
unpredirtable iourney.
Another earlier idea was to place a tar?aulin behind the figure, covering
an ar.angement of unseen packages. Viewers would know then that he bad
raken something with him from his past life that might be of use in the
future, This idea was only reiected at a relatively late stage, and Mueck decided
to allow the llgure in the boat to have nothing. Despite the vulnerability of
his nakedness the little rnan seems safe enough, for now at leasl The boal
provides a protective cocoon around him. But all journeys must come to an
end and the Maa will one day be no longer protected, forced to face the
world to which the boat delivers him. Once again, the metaphor of birtl
s,rooests itself.
PregnanlY,'ornan
Nlueck inrends his Pregz ant Woman robe approached from behind. Only by
investigating the work further, by walking around it, should the viewer he able
to discover the woman's pregnanc.y. From behind, she is simplv an over_sized
woman with stocky proportions, holding her arms above her head. Despite
being made from unyielding fibreglass, she looks fleshy and sofr' The pose,
with her arms abovc her head, makes her appear to be resting, contemplative,
caughi in a private mornent. As \Mith all of Mueck's pieces re surface detail is
noticeable even from a distance, but the temptation to colne in close is
irresistible. Veins, moles and areas of goose flesh become visible, all executed
with the artitst's customarlr uncorrpromising exactitude. The feet and hands
are especially.ir-rrPressive.
As we move around the sculpture, her massive protuberance is revealed.
This hugely swelling belly, with the shin stretched to breakingpoint, invades
the spectators' space and is of sufficient proportioil to indicate that t}le child
within is nearing the end of its term. Mueck makes us r,isualise the position of
the child's head and limbs, as it curls up in foetal
safety
of small plaster -Inaquettes around Iifteen centimetres tall. They all tal<c
up the same lour squar.e pose, \rith the arms of eaclr one in a diflerent ptsition.
'I'hese maquettes were an investigation into the range of poss:ibilities fot the
pose. At this stage, rto decision about the scale of r.he finished piece had been
ta-kcn. After these pieces he embarked upon a larger maquette, this rime of clay,
wirh which he finalised the position of the arms Nlueck dccirled to give her
closed eyes after he saw an exhausted looking pregnant woman in the National
Gallery caf6 restirrg with her eyes shut.
Thc final clay sculpture was made on an assemblage of scaffolding that
had been covered in chicken rvire ro indicate the ftrrrn of the lvoman. On top
of rhis he applied layers of scrim soaked in wct plaster and, once these had
dried, the clay -was briilt irp over the frarne. Wlen the clay sculpiiire r.as
linished, a mould was taken frorn it and tlre final piece cast in libreglass, Mueck
then cast a separate face in silicone and attached it in the sarne way as he harl
dore for Mother and Chtld.
riYhile making Pregz ant Woma4 Mteck made his most extensive use
of models in his career so far- Ile worked with one particular rvoman for ir
se-ries
six_months Pregnant'
period of nearly three months, starting when she was
in no sensc a portrait Mueck
Nevertheless, despite her crucial input, the piece is
in exactly the same
fbunrl himseif choosing rlifferent parts of different models
.(lras rePuted to have done' lle also
way t-hat the Classical Greek painter Zcuxis
in a mirror rvhcn he was
o"ed photographic ,ources aral eve looked at himself
having particular diflicuhy with theposition of the arms
is reluctant to statc
The firrished piece is two and a half metres tall N{ueck
ro make the rvoman
reasons lor his choice of scale, but once he had decided
how much bigger
larger'*ran life, there was srill the importalt issue of exactly
Tvoman l n
it should be. To resolve this, he made three large drawings of dre
'fhese were then atuched to a wooden
profile, each slight\ different in height
Gallery where the
scaffold arrd taken ty thc atist into the room in the Narional
in relation to the
sculpture woulil be shown, so that he could see i'hern
Pregnant Woman accordingly'
s.,.r_oorrdit g,pa"" and choose the size ol his
that the
Although X'lueck wanted to make alarge scrrlpture' he was anxious
To this end he needed to
finished piece should not impress by magnirude alone
relate to her as a lellow
keep her size human enough that viewers could still
as
an outsize freak'
m
]
.d
and llaade Pregnant Woma.n srnaller? Mother arul Child shows a woman
with
her baby at a rroment of absolute cxtremity and urter vulnerability- The
diminished scale poignant\ intensifies these ideas. A grearer size would
therefore mean sacrilicing thosc aspects of the work that rrrake it so convincing.
Conversely, altlrough Pregnant Woman's maquette (rvhich is low destroyed)
srill worked beautifulll., it did rrot havc the samc degree of emotive suggesLiol
Iinlarging the ligure adds another porverful aspect. As she loonN above us
she gains a totemic quality, and beco res a great Earrh Mother at whose feet
we stand. IICI enlarged scale psychologically diminishcs specrarors, giving us
the relative scale of a child. We are made to feel subordinate beforc the
povrerful form before us: motheihoiid persc,nified, the origil oi iiie. iriueck has
made an Eartlr Goddess for the twenty-Iirst century who takes her place rv:ith
representations of allcient fertility godesses, or the prehistoric female stones of
Avebury or the Boyne Valley. And yer shc is still profoundly hurrran. Her bodv
has the imperfections of reality. The closed eyes allow us to fecl urrobsen.ed as
we look at her They also encouragc us to imagine trer thoughts and her
'\/
feelings. She looks exhausted, careworn and individual, weighed down both
56
i
i
,q
unusual in the lYest but remains cornr:con Fra.ti.a rn Ce! !tr.r ! and Eastern
Europe, and even more so in the Far East. A child is swaddlcd for the first few
weehs of its life ro constrict its limbs while it becornes used to its new
environment outside the conlainmcnt of the rvomb- The swaddling clothes are
intended to replicate the sense of restriction suddenly and violently lost at birth,
A chance sighting in London's Charing Cross Road of a Romanian beggar
'T
sitting with a swaddled baby was important ro the rnaking of Mueck,s piece.
At first he did not realise that the tiny package the wornan held was a child. He
watched her as she moved it from hand to hand; in the artist,s own words ,like
a loaf of bread'. The infant could not have been more thal three weeks
old.
Tightly w'rapped, with only its face showing, it looked impossibly miniature, as
if it was altering irs own scale in a parody of Mueck,s characteristic shrinkages.
Mueck was accordingly inspired to make his Sua&tted Babylife size, rhe firsr
piece he has made without altering the scale. paradoxicalll4 however, the baby,s
tiny size mahes it look as if it has indeed been miniaturised.
14tren considering M leck's Stoa.tltlled. BaDn it is inevitable that the infant
Christ, the most famous swaddled baby in histol6 will come to mind, in much
the same way as Mu eck's Mother and ChrTd draws inescapable comparison with
traditional images of the Virgin and Child. In the National Gallery,s collection
rhere is a painting of the,4doration of the Shepluerds by an anonl.rnous
Neapolitan arrist in which the Christ
Child is tightly swaddled.'l-his picture
reinforces Mueck's apt, but
unconscions, brearl simile, since the
prcha61y r6Jos
Tl,c Narional
1a
Shz phzrdt
6all..: Lndon
dropped. The decision to show iust one carrre after Mueck had also considered
and rejected showing two or three together. If he showetl more lhal one, he
felt, rhe piece would simply become an exercise irr compadson for viewers, who
would surely be ternpted to merely try and spot slight differences between each
lace
certainly not what the arrist intcnded. The others have not been
abandoned, but put aside for later consideration as works in their own right.
As there was rro reason to produce realistic bodies for these babies, only the
heads were moulded in clay and cast oui in silicone. The body that Mueck
rnakcs us imagine, snug inside the swaddling, is simply polyurethane foam
lilling that
beneath the swaddlirrg The material for the swaddling was chosen after Mueck
had experirnented with a variety of coloured fabrics and tlpes of binding
Mueck has consistently ernplrasiser! ..har the fou!: ne\v pieces he has rlad.:
Ior this exhibition should not solely be interpreted in terrns o{ birth ard
motherhood. Of the works he has produceil at the National Gallery, this last
piece perhaps makes his point most powerfully, tharhe sees the four pieces as
being about containrnent. The baby froln or in the ]volnb, the man in the hoat
and the bound-up infant all share some sense of restriction. The white cotton
,9
around the head of tlte Su.'ad.dled Baby, combined with the dull brown of t-he
body wrapping, gives the sculpture a monk lilie appearance which iS reinforced
by the string that ties up the whole package. This hint of a monk,s solitar y,
conrcurplative life, shut away in the confinement of a rnonastery, adds alother
aspect to this
It
little figure,
l\ational Gallery studio, before he embarked deliberately on the pieces for this
exhibition. Inirially, he worked as if he was not in the Gallery realising only
latcr Lhat the wall mourrr-ed Ba6yowed rLs origin ro r-he fa.r rhat he \4as
surrounded by Old Nlasrer paintings, working amorrg so maoy odd lookilg
babies. Mueck's conscious involvemenr with the Gallery,s collection after his
invitation began wi th Mother and Chikl, made over a year after he moved in.
The pieces produced during the first year in the National Gallery however, hint
at those same themes that was to explore specifically for this exhibition.
The
()ld Wornan in Bed., contained within her bedclothes, is
arriving at the end of
the jorrrney srarred by the newborn infant of Mother and. Child.,and is wrapped
rrp in a rvay that pre sages rhe &Laddle(t Baby.-Ihe Big Ma4 gruffly
enclosed
within himself, and tbe Man in lllanhets, curled up in his foetal posture, all
happily fit wir.hin the theme of containr[enr rhat so interests N{ueck_
Colin Y\tggins
find the story among the press clippings pinned up outside. Rego had asked
her son in law, model rnaher Ron Mueck, to sit for her painting o{ Gepetto as
he made his own Pinocchio. Mueck created not a puppet but a very real boy,
who slipped unannounced into the art world under Rego's skirts. 'fhe fairytale
parallel is beguiling Gepetto, the master-c.raftsmar, put aside his everyday
work to pour all his skill into a ligure rnade to fill a gap in his life. Mueck had
'enjoyed'a successful career making models for film, television and advenisi ng
but, feeling increasingly unfulfilled and frustrated by working to order, he had
begun making work for his own private satisfaction. Mueck's Pirurchio was also
to change its maker's life after a {ashion, turning hirn into a creator of
'living'
Now this exhibition is a chance to look back at the artisls work to date, anil
an opportunity to consider
it
albeit glancingly
as
tension arises from the conflict betrveen the matcrial,s ineftia and its
impression of liveliness; the fear of the lifelike which haunts the waring
perceptions of the image
woman he had made, Vcnus brought her to life. The story dcscribes the magical
process through which a three-dirnensional sculpted form can .become, a
living, breathing entity. Similar tales are found in other mythologies, and stories
of men's desire to create a living creaturc appear in manv grises; among thern
the Jewish rradition of the golem, Descarles' automatorr Francine and
Frankenstein's monster Each is an allegory of the rewards and risks inherent
in the creative act - and more particularly an expression of our awarcness that
by creating a human figure we parody the act of divine creation. The taboo rhar
prohibits representation frorn approaching life too closely is deeply ingrainetl_
of lvarm, heavy flesh or fine dowrry hair most arouses, has been deemed
urrreliable, dalgerous, even morally questionable. At the sarne time, the
oldest,
clich6d compliment that can be paid to a sculptor is to say tbar he can rnake
marble seem flesh and blood, or make sculptures breathe or move- Daedalus,
rnl,lhic progenitor of Greek art, was said to have made sculptures that rvalked
rvell as statues' porver to provoke emotion, aad even violence and lust (the
Knidian Aphrodire, the most irrrpossibly beauriful representation of woman,
as
was said to haa-e a stain on her flank left bv one particulaJlji ot-ern-helmed
art
taking accuracy. What else do we look for to test for signs of life? Movement is
perhaps the first signifier. Mueck's sculptures are still, bDt not frozen mid
gesture: in attitudes of rest, the_t retain the possibility of motion. We also ]ook
rc the
eyes which
without them- There is a Chinese tradition that the paintcr does not complete
the eyes of his subjects, in order to prevent thern escaping his control.r Mueck
lavishes extraordinalr care on hand-making his rnodels' eyes in many stages,
building up atransparent lens over a coloured iris and deep, black pupil.'l44ren
he linally inserts them the effect is startling, as the figure appears to corne to
life- A waxwork's vacant, glassy star:e quickly betrays lifelessness. Not only are
Mueck's eyes astonishingly rcal, but they may glint from half-closed lids, be
partly aoncealed, or cast reflectively downwards: our sense o{ a ]ife behind the
eyes persists.
Dead Dad's ayes are closed. His thick grey hair has been brushed back from
the lined face, now slackened into melincholy repose. 'l'his is the one sculpture
in which l\'lueck convinces us not of the presence, but of the absence of life.
Kntur" 6r
Kiio,
Bo!,
tvlan unh
,::]
Boy, Big Man arr.d Man u.ttth Sha.ted Eead are ali rn poses Mueck's sitters found
impossible. Their bodies are folded into more cornpact forms than rve can
easily achieve, yet each one seenN relaxed, absolutely balanced and stable,
solidly rooted to thc ground. Out of thc knot of his body the Man uith Shtued
Head drapes long arms and huge. heavv hands. Lnur-kles u eigh rpd ro Ihe
ground in front of him. Nlentally unfolding him to starding height, t'e carr
]lltirpieeSioxz2a.m
Sr Baafskath.iraal. Gtent
Paiatci tithz._
1523)
t 1g7
has
Crecorio
Fe..inde t 5:t
l\,l,po DioEs.o
1516)
Caredralico. !-alladol;d
5a
in
Dees{,354 r9,?)
t.nttcD
eet af
|7ou.e.a Y?ors
(,88o,..astabout,9!2)
P.lnrpd bronz. witn,.usltn
9a.4 x
56
4,9 t a5
5 cm
aDd
sil)'
OaWon,aBd,.ooo
Anrhon,r, d OILr,
l,nd..
thal
ver iabre
rather
of
unsparing
factualiry- Ilut Mueck does not merely create the most flawless
illusion of
realityyet achieved: he resrores subiectivity and humanism to the hyper
realIn his minute, unflinching itemisation of real, imperfect human bodies
Mueck
also manages to convey an internal narrative, in a powerful
evocation of
what we might term psychological realisrn. psychology is, after all,
the essenrial
new informant of our contemporary readings, replacing political,
mythical or
religious consftucts. These sculptures are portxaits of emotional states,
and aftel
our initial astonishment ar their verisimilitude it is rheir impression
of an
inner
lile that holds our contiuued attention. Glzost is the embodiment of teenage
selfconsciousness, tlte projection of a stage at which our bodies become
suddenly
large and stxange and acutely ernbarrassing to us. Two metres tall,
rawboned,
slightly pimply, she hurrches against the wall as if wishing her regularion
swim
suit could conceal het Seated Wornan is a portrait of ageing, rhc precise
prtclt
of lili: weariness studied as finely as the varicose veins untlerthick tighb or the
web of lines rretting swollen knuckles_ Shc looks resigned, but not
defeared, as
she holds her hearl cocked slightly against the droop of her
eyelicls and neckScale is one of rhe most powerful tools fuIueck employs with
this
psychological intent. Ihough they appear to be made of rhe sarne
living sruff
as us, his scuptures are not of our world. Not human size, though
certainly
not giants or rnidgets, they are removed to their own dirnension by tliffercnr:es
of sca 1.. Tlrerp a re r-led r hisloricJl associatiorrs attar-hnd to exrrnmes of
size tn
scu]pture. Small objects are precious, and often for private enjoyment
and
59
figule to figure, our sense of our physical selves lurches from feeling clumsy
to insubstantial.
Making figures smaller thal life size seems to concentrate and intensify
their presence: a tiny baby can dominate an entire wall of a gallery.In Old
IToman in Bed.,Mreck addresses the mornent before that we see in Dcad Dad. in
which her breath still seems to labour through her half open mouth- She is a
rrrlnerable figtre, shrinking as her }ife ebbs, yet her head is t}le still, cornpelling
focal point of the white bed and larger white space rvhich surround her. Mueck
has been much quoted as sayirrg that Deal Dal's size is such that one could pick
hirn up and cradle him. In fact this seems very far from the impulse rve actually
feel in front of the work, despite our overwhelrning empathl'. Although we carr
see every detail in magnified clarity, the small ligure seems permanently
distant, dwindling, The sculpture is a farewell arrd a laying to rest. It was
inspired not by Mueck seeing his dead father, but by not seeing him: he died less
than peacefully on the other side of the world after a painful illness. IVIueck
describes him as a morose and difficult man rvho loomed large in his son's life.
In death, the artist lays him out, scrubbed, small, silent, peaceful - and beside
enormous tenderness therc is a sense that Mueck is taking back control,
containing and neutralising the realities of his father's life and death.
This is one of the more obvious exarnples of the intensely personal rrature
v.'
of Mueck's work. As well as his father, he has portrayed his wife,s grardmother
in her linal illness, and drawn on his experiences of his children's births. Mas,t,
his first self portrait, was inspired by his imaginiiig how his small daughters
saw him as he scolded them, his scowling face looming above. In a way, each
onc of the artist's works contains an element of self,portraiture quite literally,
as N{ucck will ofren use himself as a convenient reference, stripping off a sock
while linishing the derail on a foot for exarnple - but also in that these portrairs
of ernotional states are acts of exposure by an intensely private and reclusive
artist. llis ligures seem trapped in various forms of vulnerability, introversion
or depression, and appear to resent our scrutiny. Crouching, huddled, in a foetal
positjon or concealing themselves under wraps, they evade our gaze so that we
stoop and peer and pry to meet their eyes, then feel ashamed of the intrusion.
Mueck's gaze, however, is unflinchingly turled on every imperfecrion of his
subiects and himself. Astonishing acr:uracy of detail accompanies expressive
distortions and irrveutions, as we have seen, so that tvhat Mueck creates is nor a
blalk irnitation but an invocation of reality, summoneil out of this minute
perfect.ionism. Its distilled and concentrated essence fits in a very literal way
Bernard Berenson's delinition of art as 'life with a higher coeflicient of reality,.
Though infinitelv painstaking and laborious, his absolute technical rlastery
is such that the technique disappears ahogether, leaving us with the lact of the
body itself, 'Ilis art conceals its art', as Or.id savs of his PT6znalubn,
Srrsanna
Gree'e.
Jeph Ma+eh,
!d$
S.ulprure ib
th.oryoJ
dtqe.
Cnicago
$as
aadtss,
Nd Yd*
1996
Spai6dl]r QuErmr.&
rDdi,g. oI h;
ldi*
'art
pobEhlrmyE ffir:lrFlr
Qulmi
d
!.lc
Srlloa rrE-ns. NiFdrl
CaiEI [).td. e 7L C.re.g/
Sir4F ?,rr.,9q.d Ard,6
Ceit in woUL.rs llttrd
'