Voorlinden is proud to present the largest retrospective of Ron Mueck ever. Thanks to his unprecedented craftsmanship and incredible attention to detail, the Australian-born artist creates stunningly realistic and intimate sculptures that convey universal human experiences and feelings. At Voorlinden you can see both very early and his most recent work, often monumentally large or surprisingly small. In the works, you will discover that Mueck is not only a great sculptor, but also an astute observer of our emotions.
The retrospective at Voorlinden provides an important overview of the artistic development of Ron Mueck. Within a career span of a little over 25 years, he has dealt with various everyday and universal themes such as birth and death, adolescence and aging. On display, for instance, is Big Baby II (1996-97), part of Voorlinden’s collection, which Ron Mueck made in his early years as an autonomous artist. Although often presenting solitary figures, several sculptures also explore the relationship between two or more. A classic example is the elderly couple from Couple under an Umbrella (2013), also part of the collection of Voorlinden.
From feeling to form
Despite his relatively small oeuvre – 48 works in total – Ron Mueck’s work is well-known and much-loved. In his breathtakingly realistic sculptures, he uses scale to highlight certain states of being or specific emotions. In this way they remain convincingly lifelike, no matter how small or monumental in size. Man in Blankets (2000), for instance, shows an adult the size of a swaddled baby appearing to be hiding from the world, while the almost 7-metre-long woman of In Bed (2005) draws the viewer in to consider thoughts in which she seem lost. More recently, Mueck has focused more on form, composition and gesture, revealing more dynamism and tension in his work. This is evident in the confrontation of his most recent work En Garde (2023), and also the room-filling installation Mass (2016-17), where the audience explores a memento mori landscape of a hundred giant skulls, each over a metre in height.
Rare insight into artist’s studio
The exhibition at Voorlinden includes two films by the French photographer and filmmaker Gautier Deblonde: the award-winning Still Life: Ron Mueck at Work (2013) and more recent Three Dogs, a Pig and a Crow (2023). Deblonde’s close working relationship with Ron Mueck and his continual documentation of sculptures in progress ensures that both films provide a rare insight into the studio life of the artist.