Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn Museum

Unlike photorealist painters who often chose the dullest subject matter in the world to depict, thus rendering their skill meaningless, sculptors who work hyper-realistically are far less prone to fall into this trap. It's possible that artists with this skill set simply end up working for Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, but I like to think that sculptors genuinely avoid this particular problem because they, for some reason, just know better. What secret knowledge do realists like Ron Mueck have, that prevents them from becoming a Whoopi Goldberg wax sculpting monkey? Is his skill more sophisticated than an intuition for scale, and the ability to read how an object will relate to the space it is displayed in?

I believe it is, but I’d rather hear what the artist has to say on the subject, which is why I'm sending these questions to Ron Mueck himself. In fact, until November 20^th, we can all harass the man, because The Brooklyn Museum has set up an email account for the artist, and is inviting inquires from viewers. So go see Mueck’s new show at the Museum, and email him your questions at ronmueck@brooklynmuseum.org. You’ll hear back from him in December here.

Related: View Ron's work on Flickr.