Figures in an Exhibition - Mc Clelland Gallery

The Figures in an Exhibition… exhibition draws together sculptures, paintings and photography from Australian art, ranging from the Colonial era, through early Modernism to the inspiring examples of the present. These various representations of the human figure reflect a variety of concepts of beauty and style as well as portraying various ideas of personal and national identity.

Within the exhibition, amongst others, the poetic feminine figures of the sculptors such as Bertram Mackennal and C.D. Richardson stand in elegant contrast to the masculine hyper-real detail of Ron Mueck and Sam Jinks figures. Figures in an Exhibition encapsulates the changing ethos of Australian art.

If found the hyper realism of Ron Mueck quite striking, not only in tis size but in its amazing detail! If someone asked me to define this style or genré of art I would show them the wild man of Ron Mueck. In The Wild Man a giant clutches at his seat. In his nakedness, unarmed he shies away from our gaze. This is a real circus strongman, caught naked and unable to defend himself from our presence and our gaze. His eyes wide open fend us off and there is an expression of "whoa – what are you doing here?

The other art piece that engaged my attention simply because of its rarity and weightiness in terms of how profound Edgar Degas’s work was and is in the stream of time. I like the idea of is cheekiness and how Edgar Degas’s art works/poses always seem hold a very private or intimate pose, as if the viewer was not suppose to be look at the portrayed model – like a “peeping tom”, or as I like to call him a “dirty old man” (which in this case I use as a term of endearment).

Edgar Degas’s Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Right Foot (fourth state), The figure is one of four in a series of surviving figures—each in a slightly different position but all doing the same thing—that exemplify Degas' fascination with subtle changes in the dynamics of movement. This one was long thought to be the final one in the series owing to its relatively finished surface, but one of Degas' models asserted that in 1910 she was asked by the artist to assume the difficult pose of the plaster cast while he modeled another small figure. So it seems that, in fact, the less finished versions are likely to be the later ones.




As for the rest of the sculptures I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and this time there was no question as to what was and what is art, there was in almost all case’s a cense of awe with the sculptures. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.