Bridget Garnai, Arts Management Intern
The Miami University Art Museum (MUAM) is proud to announce the impending arrival of a new sculpture in the Sculpture Park! The due date (installation date) is yet to be determined but we are glowing with anticipation. The newest addition to our collection is a temporary loan from German artist Wolfgang Auer. His piece is titled Hatched Baby which is quite fitting for the 9-foot tall royal blue infant poking its head out of a cracked white egg. A very large stork (aka our friends at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park) delivered the blue baby to us from the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in nearby Hamilton, Ohio where Auer’s fiberglass and resin sculpture was on display from October 2015 to September 2016. Hatched Baby made quite a stir during its time in Hamilton. Visitors to the Fitton Center had lots of fun taking selfies and photos with Hatched Baby, and visitors to the MUAM Sculpture Park are welcome to do the same once the piece is installed. Please use #BlueBabyMiamiOH when sharing your pictures with Hatched Baby on social media. The Miami University Art Museum is excited to share the piece with the Miami University campus and the Oxford community through its temporary installation in the MUAM Sculpture Park.
Wolfgang Auer, a Friedberg, Germany-based artist, made public works of art in the form of bronze sculptures and fountains until 2007 when his daughter was born. The artist credits his daughter as his inspiration to alter the subject matter and style of his creations; the pieces created after his daughter’s birth are modeled after her and have to do with the anxieties that Auer associates with parenthood. Some have suggested that Auer’s “Blue Babies” are a continuation of the visual tradition of children symbolizing hope, love, new life, innocence, and purity. Auer has created other “Blue Babies” that have been on display all over Europe. In addition to Hatched Baby, Auer also made similar infants in crawling positions. All of the babies have the same distinct blue skin, wide curious eyes, fully-grown teeth, and monumental size, which give the sculptures of infants a physical and emotional power rarely afforded to small children or representations of them. To see images of the other pieces in his “Blue Baby” project, visit Wolfgang Auer’s website.
The MUAM was pleased to work with the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, and the City of Sculpture project on the transfer of Wolfgang Auer’s piece to our museum, and is excited to work with these groups in the future. If anyone knows where we can find some giant diapers for our Hatched Baby please let us know! Stay tuned to find out when our infant will make its big debut!