Week 4 - Humanism and contemporary sculpture. Ron Mueck's sculpture and Humanism

1. Mueck's sculpture is described as 'hyper-real'. Define the meaning

of this term and explain how it is evident in his work.

The term of 'hyper-real' involving or characterized by particularly realistic graphic representation. It derives from the genre of Hyperrealism which is considered an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures.

Mueck works with a particular type of hyper-real sculptures, he tend to pay attention to details of skin folds, wrinkles and expression. Although highle detailed, these props were usually designed to be photographed from one specific angle hiding the mess of construction seen from the other side. Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images.

2. Mueck says he is not interested in making life size sculpture. Find out why he is more interested in working with the scale of the figure which is not life size, and mention 2 works which use scale that is either larger or smaller than life.

Mueck is more interested in working with the scale of the figure which is not ife size, he said :"We meet life-size people every day." He explained that it makes you take notice in a way you wouldn't do if it were normal. He really put his feelings into the work and he tends to show every detail of the human body from every angle. Mueck break the rule,Some of his works are always out of scale from reality, either oversized or undersized. Manipulating scale make his sculpture pretty eye-catching, which amplifies the shocking visual, emotional and psychological impacts. There are two examples: Boy(2000), a five meter high sculpture of a young boy crouching. Two Women(2005),two old ladies much smaller than real life ladies.

Boy(2000)-a five meter high sculpture of a young boy crouching,Mueck uses abnormal scale, a young boy characterized to be much larger than average adult, and we can also image the size of the sculpture if the boy was not crouching.

3. Define Renaissance Humanism, and identify which aspects of Humanism can be seen in Mueck's work. Note that the contemporary definition of Humanism is much broader than the Renaissance definition.

Renaissance Humanism was a cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasized secular concerns as a result of the rediscovery and study of the literature, art and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome.

Humanism can be apparently seen in Mueck's work, as I mentioned before, he tends to show every detail from every angle of human body. As a result, he shows the normal humans rather than some perfect images.

4. Research and discuss one of Mueck's sculptures that you might find challenging or exciting to experience in an art gallery. Describe the work, upload an image of the work, and explain your personal response to the work. Comment on other student blogs to develop the discussion around the variety of our own personal and individual responses to art and design

The sculpture I choose is Two Women(2005). This work shows two old ladies much smaller than real life ladies. They are hunched over towards each other in winter coats, with hands crossed and a suspicious look on their faces, which to me suggests they have something to hide. It looks like they are gossiping to each other or have a secret. They are facing slightly to the side, looking at the viewers, as if they are talking about you. It is really interesting. 

                  ---Ron Mueck  Two Women(2005)-----

Reference:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hyperreal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperrealism_(visual_arts) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck

http://sunseven.hubpages.com/hub/Awesome_Sculptures_Of_Ron_Mueck

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/ron_mueck/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/humanism

Damien Hirst's work 'For the Love of God' and Mercantilism

                   Damien Hirst's work 'For the Love of God' and Mercantilism

  Research Damien Hirst's work For the Love of God(2007) in order to answer the following questions;

1. Describe the work, giving details of the form and materials.

This work is It's a skull made out of platinum, diamonds, and human teeth. The total thing has 8,601 flawless diamonds and comes in at 1,106.18 carats.,including a pear-shaped diamond,which is seen as the centrepiece of the work lies on the forehead..The entire skull is covered in the diamond with the exception of the teeth of the skull. It's the most expensive piece of art ever created, costing between $16 and $20 million to make, and $99 million to buy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/may/21/arts.artsnews

2. What does the work mean? What is Damien Hirst communicating in the work?

The diamond skull tend towant to celebrate life by saying to hell with death .It represents the meaning of transience of human existence. This work has no precedent in art history, the skull is supernatural. It also indicates the death is relentless. The Skull of Diamonds is pureglory ,it is not like the tearful sadness of a vanitas scene.

3. How does Hirst's diamond encrusted skull relate to Mercantilism and to conspicuous consumption?

Cultures the world over have used human skulls as sacred objects in rites that involve the celebration of life and the contemplation of death. It always touches us deeply to see a human skull festooned with flowers or decorated with emblems of the living. It is only just, given what our society deems valuable, to encrust this skull with gems more excessively than any other object. That is painting it in the best possible light, and I have no doubt that, should the object go up for auction, the catalogue sales-pitch will read along those lines. But we, being Warholians, know better. It’s mostly about money. It’s about the spectacle of money. We gape in awe at the thing, as we would an aircraft carrier or the Great Pyramid. Only it’s not physical size or technical complexity that fascinates, but the glittering visage of such a staggering amount of money smiling back at us (it’s a hell of a lot more than the money you could be saving with Geico). It’s about Damien Hirst, wielder of this power, which is money, and about the person or persons who can afford to buy it. That is what the Age of Warhol has become.

http://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/for-the-love-of-god/

4. How much did the work cost, and how much was it sold for, and who bought it?

1. It costs £14 million to produce, the work went on display at the White Cube gallery in London in an exhibition Beyond belief with an asking price of £50 million. This would have been the highest price ever paid for a single work by a living artist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Love_of_God#Sale

London’s White Cube gallery announced that British artist Damien Hirst diamond-encrusted skull sold for $100 million dollars. The skull cost $20 million to make, including diamonds and fabrication, according to Dunphy.

http://gallery.artron.net/show_news.php?newid=33770



5. What are some of the differing opinions of the journalists in the newspaper and blog articles? What did they think of the work?

In 2009, Spanish artist Eugenio Merino unveiled a piece entitled 4 The Love of Go(l)d" a giant sculpture, encased in glass, of Hirst shooting himself in the head. Merino, in fact an admirer of Hirst, intended the piece as a comment on the emphasis on money within the art world, and with Hirst in particular. "I thought that, given that he thinks so much about money, his next work could be that he shot himself," said Merino. "Like that the value of his work would increase dramatically...Obviously, though, he would not be around to enjoy it

Richard Dorment, art critic of The Daily Telegraph, wrote: "If anyone but Hirst had made this curious object, we would be struck by its vulgarity. It looks like the kind of thing Asprey or Harrods might sell to credulous visitors from the oil states with unlimited amounts of money to spend, little taste, and no knowledge of art. I can imagine it gracing the drawing room of some African dictator or Colombian drug baron. But not just anyone made it - Hirst did. Knowing this, we look at it in a different way and realise that in the most brutal, direct way possible, For the Love of God questions something about the morality of art and money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Love_of_God

http://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/for-the-love-of-god/

6. Based on your research, what is your opinion of the work, as an object or a work of art.

To be honest, I do not like this work. In my point of view, The amount of money he spent on this work is ridiculous, and the person who bought it is insane. We can use these money do other meaningful things,like donating to developing countries where the people are suffering from starving, poor education and health system. Furthermore, the meaning of are can not measured by money.

www.telegraph.co.uk › Culture › Culture News