Page 51 - Annual Review 2008
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RESOuRCES /
51
Born and raised in Melbourne, Ron Mueck is today
recognised as being among the most significant
contemporary sculptors working in a realist tradition.
His first major outing as a visual artist (having previously
worked as a commercial model maker) was in one of
the defining exhibitions of the 1990s — ‘Sensation:
Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection’. Held
in 1997 at the Royal Academy, London, ‘Sensation’
included works by many of the leading contemporary
British artists of the day including Damien Hirst, Jake
and Dinos Chapman, Chris Ofili and Rachel Whiteread.
In bed
depicts a middle-aged woman who has been
carefully composed so that the position of her body
and facial expression are highly naturalistic, while also
suggesting a range of narrative possibilities. At over
one-and-a-half metres high and almost seven metres
long, the size of the subject has been massively
exaggerated. While the viewer may at first be taken
aback by the monumental scale, this experience is
ultimately tempered by the decidedly unspectacular
nature of the subject. The frozen moment of solitary
reflection captured in the sculpture prompts us to reflect
on the psychology of prosaic, everyday situations.
RON
MUECK
In bed
2005
Ron Mueck /
In bed
2005 / Mixed media ed. 1/1 / Purchased 2008. Queensland Art Gallery
Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Image courtesy: Anthony d’Offay, London.
Left: Installation view of new acquisitions in Gallery 3.1, GoMA. Foreground: Tobias Putrih /
Connection
2004 / Cardboard boxes / Purchased 2008 with funds from Tim Fairfax,
AM
,
through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Background: Michael Parekowhai /
The Horn of
Africa
2006 / Automotive paint, wood, fibreglass, steel, brass / Purchased 2008 with funds from
the Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund in recognition of the
contribution to the Gallery by Wayne Goss (Chair of Trustees 1999–2008) / Collection: Queensland
Art Gallery / Photograph: Natasha Harth
*Installed GoMA, Nov 08
