Dead Dad

Charles 5 Comments
Charles

Brian Appleyard writes: Mueck exhibited only one piece at the Sensation show: Dead Dad, a hyper-realistic sculpture of the corpse of his father. The first shock was that it was little more than half life-size. The second shock was — well, I’ll come back to that. Some years later, Craig Raine, the poet and critic, recalled his reaction to Dead Dad. “And there, on the floor, 3ft long, is one indisputable, obvious masterpiece… a calmly brilliant sculpture which is the contemporary equivalent of, say, Holbein’s subtle portrait of Erasmus, with its engaged intelligence and wryly amused thin mouth.”

I enjoy Mueck’s work and this sculpture in particular, reflecting how death apparently diminishes those we love.

See Brian Appleyard’s whole article here

Posted by Evelyn

5 Comments

  1. Charles

    I surprise myself sometimes by how much I appreciate some contemporary art – this piece is breath-taking. I also found Poppy’s piece Art of Death extremely moving especially the little dog holding up a sign.

  2. Charles

    Thanks for sharing this Evelyn. Painful but true, in a literal sense as well. My dad was a strong, active and fit man, but by the time the leukaemia had finished him off he was a shadow of his former self. And I hadn’t noticed this until he was on his death-bed.

  3. Charles

    Thank you Lyra – Mueck has done some startling stuff – google him in images! And I loved Poppy’s too – my favourite was the shopping list headstone haha

  4. Charles

    Belinda – I know what you mean – I was shocked to suddenly see my Dad through the eyes of the young healthy doctors who came to sign him off…that’s when he wasn’t ‘my’ Dad anymore. Do they shrink, or do we grow?

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