Ron Mueck

I came across an article on the Daily mail website which shows some amaaazing pictures taken of sculptures made by an Australian London-based hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck. He's been doing this since 1996 and although his work is laden with modern day widely produced materials - like fiberglass - I can't help but be reminded of wholly traditional methods. He molds the figures in clay and then covers them in a plaster cast and then fills the cast in the materials of his choice. Although the article does not elaborate any further I imagine the only way to successfully do what was described is via the methodology perfected by the likes of Renaissance masters.

In Autumn last year I did a course in Florence called 'Making and Remaking Renaissance art' which was taught by a man called Alan Pascuzzi who is an extremely talented artist. His workshop was full of his own sculptures and paintings. He taught us from the basics of forgery (and told us he thinks that a significant amount of the works in the Uffizi are forgeries!) to making clay models, using the egg-tempera painting technique and how to apply Gold-leaf. He also spoke to us briefly about sculpture and I'd be interested to know whether the technique that Michelangelo used for his David was the same method that Ron Mueck uses. We're in an age where we've landed on the moon yet we're potentially still taking tips from people who were living 500 years ago?! amazing.

Here are some of his sculptures. So scarily life-like. Because they're so life-like you'd assume they're life size too - and some of them are, but not all. So surreal.