Ron Mueck is an Australian artist known for sculptures that capture the emotions of the human face. He is known as a hyper realist artist. I love his use of exaggeration when portraying the human figure. Ron Mueck was born in Melbourne, Australia in the year 1958. Many times the human body is portrayed larger than in real life adding to the curiosity of Mueck’s works.
He worked in entertainment industry for many years. Similar to Sesame Street, Ron Mueck was the creative director and voice of many puppets for a popular children’s show titled Shirl’s Neighbourhood. It was ran from 1979 to 1984.
Other jobs in the entertainment field include working with Jim Henson and his Muppets and also a film titled Labyrinth.
Mueck lives and works out of London, England.
Mueck then started his own business creating props and large animated creatures that looked animated rather than like robots. The company was based out of London, England. The company was a challenge for the artist, but his props were usually only meant to photographed from one side or a certain angle. Mueck longed to produce finished works of art that looked finished from all angles.
Has made collaborations with his mother-in-law another famous artist named Paula Rego. Rego is a famous author and painter and here is a great example of her expressive style of painting.
His mother introduced him to mega art collector Charles Saatchi and this helped launch his career to the next level as Saatchi purchased works and commissioned works by the artist.
Below is a great clip that shows an exhibition given by the artist. Many different works are shown and the artist’s brilliance at capturing emotion in his faces is displayed.
When looking at Ron Mueck’s body of work I am reminded of the great British artist Lucien Freud. Freud was known for his use of very thick paint applied with his hogs hair brushes. The artist enjoyed drawing people from odd angles and many times his works appear more lively than other stiffly and more accurately painted pictures. Below is a great example of Freud’s artwork. Freud was born in the year 1922 and passed away in 2011.
Price range information: Ron Mueck has broken the one million dollar sale mark with a work titled Big Baby which sold for $1.35 million back in 2008. Smaller works that are cast out of dental plaster are the cheapest starting around $80,000.
Other great hyper realist style sculptors profiled on this site would be John DeAndrea and also master sculptor Duane Hanson, both profiled here already!
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