VIENNA.- Continuing the series of contemporary art exhibitions at the Theseus Temple, this year they are presenting Man in a Boat, a sculpture by the acclaimed Australian artist Ron Mueck that was created during a residency at the National Gallery, London, in 2000–2. In the late 1990s, Mueck caused a sensation with his detailed sculpture of a prostrate naked man, a depiction of his own dead father (Dead Dad). The verisimilitude of this work has become something of a trademark of Mueck’s œuvre and references the artist’s first occupation: before he transitioned to fine art, Mueck made models and special effects for films and advertisements.

Mueck creates his sculptures in a traditional manner. Using photographs, press cuttings or life models, he begins with three-dimensional preparatory studies that eventually lead to a plaster cast. For the actual artwork he uses polyester and acrylic resins as well as fibreglass compounds; with the addition of hair and paint, these materials allow him to create highly veristic surfaces. At the same time Mueck imbues his figures with a powerful psychological expression. But his manipulation of scale turns them into unreal intermediate beings. As though taken from a surreal story, they seem to address the viewer directly, drawing us into their space, and confront us with Mueck’s primary subject: the human body and the subsequent contingency of man’s existence.

This is Ron Mueck’s first solo exhibition in Austria. It is curated by Jasper Sharp, and generously supported by the Contemporary Patrons of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the British Council, Anthony d’Offay, and Hauser & Wirth.

MAN IN A BOAT
A naked man, slightly more than half life-size, sits in the prow of a rowing boat. His arms are folded, his neck is craned and he stares out through tired eyes into the middle-distance. It is not clear where he is going, or from where he might have come. He seems adrift, both literally and metaphorically, like a middle-aged Moses. Sheltered within the protective cocoon of his boat, he is nonetheless a portrait of helplessness and vulnerability. His expression is curious and watchful, but ultimately ambiguous. It is an ambiguity that the artist, Ron Mueck, labours meticulously to achieve. Could it be a metaphor for birth, with the boat a traditional symbol for the Immaculate Conception? Or perhaps for death, and our passage into the next life? The questions go unanswered, leaving us both fascinated and uneasy. Its presentation here, in a temple high above the ground in a land-locked country far from the sea, only adds to the mystery.

RON MUECK
Ron Mueck was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1958, to German parents who both worked as toymakers. He grew up making puppets and various creatures, experimenting with materials and techniques. With no formal art training beyond high school, he began his career making models for television and film, including Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986) before moving on to establish his own production company in London producing objects for the advertising industry. He was catapulted into the art world in 1997 when his sculpture Dead Dad was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, as part of the exhibition “Sensation” from the collection of Charles Saatchi. He has had solo exhibitions at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, and the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, among others, and was invited to participate in the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001.

CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE THESEUS TEMPLE
Beginning in 2012, the Kunsthistorisches Museum initiated a new series of exhibitions within the Temple, a neo-classical structure built by court architect Peter von Nobile in 1823 to be the home for a single work of thencontemporary art: Antonio Canova's white marble masterpiece “Theseus Slaying the Centaur”. For almost seventy years this artwork stood alone inside the building, until in 1891 it was moved to the newly-completed Kunsthistorisches Museum where it still stands today. More than a century later, these exhibitions have returned the Temple to its original purpose: to house remarkable artworks by contemporary artists, one at a time.

Artists who have previously exhibited at the Theseus Temple include Ugo Rondinone (2012), Kris Martin (2012), Richard Wright (2013), Edmund de Waal (2014) and Susan Philipsz (2015).