{"id":322157,"date":"2025-12-02T06:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322157\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T06:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:15:07","slug":"art-gallery-of-nsw-prepares-for-summer-blockbuster-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322157\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Gallery of NSW prepares for summer blockbuster exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gallery has fingers crossed Ron Mueck: Encounter will be the shot in the arm it needs to wrap up a year in which Maud Page succeeded<\/a> Michael Brand as the gallery\u2019s first ever female director. It fell to Page to axe 44 roles<\/a>, to plug a $7.5 million shortfall with affected staff departing as Mueck opens his biggest ever Australian show.<\/p>\n

Some 2.4 million people visited the gallery last financial year, up 17 per cent, but paid attendance was less than a quarter of that (471,415), bringing in $11 million in revenue. It\u2019s stunning show, Magritte,<\/a> translated into 135,726 tickets sold, and Chinese multimedia artist, Cao Fei, drew less than half that to her show, My City is Yours.<\/p>\n

South of the border, National Gallery of Victoria\u2019s Yayoi Kusama<\/a> show became the highest-attended ticketed art show in Australian history with 570,537 visitors. Mueck will open in the same week as NGV rolls out its next blockbuster pairing of British designer Vivienne Westwood and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo.<\/p>\n

Mueck\u2019s recent exhibition in Seoul earlier this year attracted 100,000 visitors in just 20 days, said Page, and is expected to captivate local audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no formula for success in exhibitions \u2013 if there were, AI could program for us,\u201d Page says. \u201cBut with Mueck, it\u2019s all about pure human emotion. His sculptures hold an extraordinary power: we know we shouldn\u2019t stare, yet we can\u2019t look away. Each piece radiates an uncanny, slightly odd story that you feel first in your gut, and then your mind turns over, trying to explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Melbourne-born son of German toymakers, Mueck worked in children\u2019s television and with Jim Henson until a landmark survey of works at London\u2019s Royal Academy in 1997 by collector Charles Saatchi made his name. Mueck\u2019s intimate meditation on mortality, a smaller-than-life-size figure of his naked deceased father, caused a sensation.<\/p>\n

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The Museum of Contemporary Art staged Mueck\u2019s last Sydney show two decades ago. Ron Mueck: Encounter displays 15 works, almost one third of the artist\u2019s total career output.<\/p>\n

Encounter includes one new work, Havoc, which features a pack of snarling barking dogs rounding on each other, a commentary on these conflict-ridden times.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be hard-pressed to find another artist who has the sculptural and the painting skills that Ron has, to achieve these dogs in resin that feels like they are a carved Baroque stone work,\u201d Dunn says. \u201cThis is someone who has something important to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Mueck: Encounter runs from December 6, 2025 to April 12, 2026<\/p>\n

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