DUANE HANSON

2 Jun-13 Sep 2015

Overview

Since the 1960s and throughout his forty-year career, Duane Hanson (1925–1996) has made lifelike sculptures portraying working-class Americans. Hanson’s work is reminiscent of Pop and Photorealism tendencies of the time. With his sculptures, he aims to show the reality of life with the realism of his work. Hanson’s early works comprised life-sized displays – soldiers killed in action, police brutality and homeless people – to confront viewers with devastating truths. In the early 1970s, his work shifted to presenting individuals and their appearances in a satirical manner, creating figures that could be perceived as representative of an entire nation. These realistic sculptures of repairmen, tourists and waitresses are accentuated by his casting technique, which uses polyester resin and, later, bronze, shifting our perspectives of the world and our familiarity with various everyday roles.