Proper nowadays artists - day 127: Ron Mueck (Australia)

Ron Mueck (1958, Australia)

There’s something about nowadays abstract sculpture that’s particularly wretched. By its presence and physicality it ends up somehow even more dour and dull than its abstract painterly sibling, distilling the mediocrity somehow; an achievement of sorts I suppose. This is especially so when it’s outside in the public, giving us no choice but to see it. Then, we’re all forced to look at these works in all their miserableness in the street and on the road as they slowly go rusty and get covered in graffiti and bird crap. Even a lot of the nowadays life-like work is just amateurish and ridiculous looking, but they’re definitely nowhere near as ghastly and empty as the abstract stuff of course. So on to Ron Mueck. His ‘Dead Dad’ silicone and acrylic piece was one of the one’s that first got him attention in the 90’s. It’s typical of his work in that it’s intimate, well-crafted, humane, inviting and stimulating, the polar opposite of all the stuff mentioned already basically.

Dead Dad, 1996.