Ron Mueck

While many artists strive to glamorize, and portray our world to be better than it actually is, others simply find art in our ordinary lives and our simple bodies. Mueck is one of those artists, and is now well known for his super realistic sculptures where he portrays humans at key stages in the life cycle, from birth through middle age, to death.

Ron Mueck, now working in the United Kingdom, was born in 1958 in Melbourne, Australia. The son of German-born toy-makers, he grew up making creatures, puppets and costumes in his spare time, experimenting with materials and techniques. He started his career as a model maker and puppeteer for children’s films (such as Labyrinth, The Storyteller and etc.). Later he was making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry. In 1996 Mueck transitioned to fine art and in 1999 he was appointed as Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London.

Without further ado, let’s take a little virtual museum tour, and explore these mind-blowing photo realistic sculptures by  Ron Mueck.

Source: http://www.boredpanda.com/13-hyper-realistic-sculptures-by-ron-mueck/

We have chosen the work of Ron Mueck because with his sculptures of extraordinary proportions he portrays the fragility of human beings in the cycle of life. Although the statues are enormous the body language of these is read as weak and fragile. 

Frida Kahlo: Inspiring Life

Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera. The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas and Edward Norton (uncredited) from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahloby Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor. It won Oscars for Best Makeup and Best Original Music Score. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zudfarZ-ZNk

As we told in a previous post the life of Frida Kahol was inspiring, in such a way that it became a movie. We wanted to post this trailer because this movie illustrates the fragility of her body and the hard things she had to endure during her life. But this movie shows how she used all mer pain and transformed it into beautiful paintings.

The Robust God Devouring His Fragile Son

Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that his children would overthrow him, ate each one upon their birth. It is one of the series of Black Paintings that Goya painted directly onto the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823.

Goya depicts Saturn feasting upon one of his sons. His child's head and part of the left arm has already been consumed. The right arm has probably been eaten too, though it could be folded in front of the body and held in place by Saturn's crushing grip. The god is on the point of taking another bite from the left arm; as he looms from the darkness, his mouth gapes and his eyes bulge white with the appearance of madness. The only other brightness in the picture comes from the white flesh and red blood of the corpse and the white knuckles of Saturn as he digs his fingers into the back of the body.

Francisco Goya
1819–1823 Oil mural transferred to canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saturno_devorando_a_sus_hijos.jpg

Goya may have been inspired by Peter Paul Rubens' 1636 picture of the same name. Rubens' painting, also held at the Museo del Prado, is a brighter, more conventional treatment of the myth: his Saturn exhibits less of the cannibalistic ferocity portrayed in Goya's rendition. However, some critics^[who?] have suggested that Rubens' portrayal is the more horrific: the god is portrayed as a calculating remorseless killer, who – fearing for his own position of power – murders his innocent child. Goya's vision, on the other hand, shows a man driven mad by the act of killing his own son. In addition, the body of the son in Goya's picture is that of an adult, not the helpless baby depicted by Rubens.

Peter Paul Rubens
Saturn, Jupiter's father, devours one of his sons, Poseidon 1636 Oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son

This is yet another example of how Mythology becomes an inspitarion of art. In both of this paintings the artists show the fragility of the life in the hands of the god while he savagely devors his son. In both paintings the god is portrayed as strong and robust, while the rapresentation of the son varies alot from one painting to the other. In Goya's painting he shows only his life less body,  while in Ruben's painting he shows the excruciating pain in the fragile baby's face.

Frida Kahlo: Strong soul, weak body

A tragic bus accident in 1925 when she was 18, left Frida with a fractured spine, a crushed pelvis, and broken foot. She was to remain partially handicapped and in pain for the rest of her life. This life-changing event set in motion the practice of faithfully recording the painful episodes of her life through her art. Many of her works focus on her pain and the multiple surgeries that she endured. The Broken Column of 1944 shows her wearing the backbrace that appears regularly in her paintings:

Broken Column of 1944

 Images of the suffering of Christ and the Saints surrounded the traditional Mexican Catholics in their spiritual life. The message taught by the Church was to learn to endure the pain and hardship and be prepared to suffer and sacrifice as Christ and his Martyrs did. Despite the intense pain undoubtedly the result of their torture, Christ and his Matryrs confront the faithful with their expressionless stares. Her Broken Column can be traced back through the Mexican Catholic art to its European sources in images like Andrea Mantegna's Saint Sebastian

The Henry Ford Hospital, 1932.

Source: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth200/women/kahlo.html


We have selected Frida Kahlo's work beacause she was a woman that lived in alot of physical and emotional pain but was strong-willed. Her physical fragility is a common theme in her paintings, she portrayed her weak nude body but the expression of her face was always strong, it showed almost no emotion and no pain. She was an amazing woman that nonthe less all the suffering she manage to live an extraordinary life. She had a weak body but her robust soul allowed her to go on with her life. 

Jupiter Notices Callisto - BERCHEM

Nicolaes Berchem was a landscapist. However, he produced a number of works between 1648 and 1650 in which figures dominate the composition. Later he produced several more pictures with figures so large that the landscape is no more than decor. The Callisto is one of the most impressive of these works.

The beautiful nymph Callisto, exhausted from the hunt, has lain down to rest in a glade. Her robust figure fills the entire foreground. Her right hand rests on a deer and a hare she has brought back from the hunt. She is elegant and coquettish, and she attracts the attention of the lecherous Jupiter, supreme ruler of the gods, who passes by on a cloud in the background.

1656
Oil on canvas, 129 x 168 cm
Private collection

Source: http://www.wga.hu/index1.html

We have chosen this painting because it shows a very robust nymph that although her body is very big, her uncovered chest, the sweetness in her face and the way she is touching the donkey make her seem fragile at the same time. She is full of light but is surrounded by darkness which also make her seem vulnerable. 

David and Goliath

The Israelites are facing the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. The boy David is bringing food to his older brothers who are with King Saul. He hears the Philistine giant Goliath challenging the Israelites to send their own champion to decide the outcome in single combat. David tells Saul he is prepared to face Goliath and Saul allows him to make the attempt. He is victorious, striking Goliath in the forehead with a stone from his sling, and the Philistines flee in terror. Saul sends to know the name of the young champion, and David tells him that he is the son of Jesse.

Davide con la testa di Golia, Caravaggio 1610

The physical fragility is represented by David in comparison to the gigantic Goliath.   But eventhough he is smaller, he is actually the winner of this scene.
Among the two of them, David personifies in a more correct maner the concept of a robust hero because he is strong of spirit and inteligent. Mean while Goliath belives to be superior than his adversary and he makes this judgement based only on his physical capacity. 

Achille: Robust soldier, fragile man

In Greek mythology, Achilles (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, Achilleus) was a Greek hero of theTrojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.

Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled againstTroy.

Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the first century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. 

According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the first century AD, and to no surviving previous sources, when Achilles was born Thetis (his mother) tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx and making him invulnerable. However, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his heel. 

Since he died due to a poisonous arrow shot into his heel, the term "Achilles' heel" has come to mean a person's principal weakness

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles

Villa Reale, Milano

We have chosen the character Achilles to represent our pair of antonyms because we think that he represents both of them very well. With his muscular body and strength he represents ROBUST, but his heel shows his real weakness and how FRAGILE  he really is. 

Soft Statue

Jeff Koons (born January 21, 1955) is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces.

Koons' work has sold for substantial sums including at least one world record auction price for a work by a living artist. Critics are sharply divided in their views of Koons. Some view his work as pioneering and of major art-historical importance. Others dismiss his work as kitsch: crass and based on cynical self-merchandising. Koons has stated that there are no hidden meanings in his works. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Koons#Puppy_1992

Balloon Dog (Magenta)

We have chosen this work of art  because although the sculpture is made out of steel  and it is 3 meters high, it represents a balloon animal which is actually very fragile and delicate.