Duane Hanson

Duane Hanson 1925-96, American sculptor, b. Alexandria, Minn. A member of the superrealist movement of the late 1960s and early 70s, Hanson produced life-sized tableaux of realistic figures and props. In the 1960s these frequently depicted violent, politically charged events, such as in Vietnam Scene (1969). Many of the eerily realistic single figures for which he is best known, e.g., his 1970 works Hard Hat and Supermarket Shopper, portray familiar types of modern Americans, and employ polyester resin figures and items of real clothing and other everyday objects. His work has been praised by some for its underlying humanity or its implied satire and criticized by others for its brand of deadpan dullness.

Hanson, Duane (1925–96). American sculptor. Hanson was probably the best-known exponent of Superrealism in sculpture, producing minutely detailed fibreglass resin figures dressed in real clothes and accompanied by real props. He commented pungently on the depressing or tasteless aspects of everyday American life, his subjects including down-and-outs, exhausted shoppers, or, in one of his most famous works, a pair of fat, ageing, and garishly dressed sightseers (Tourists, 1970, Scottish NG of Modern Art, Edinburgh).

Hanson, Duane (1925–1996). American sculptor, the best-known exponent of Superrealism in sculpture. He was born in Alexandria, Minnesota, and had his main training at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, where he graduated in 1951. From 1953 to 1960 he lived in Germany. In 1965, after teaching at various art schools, he moved to Miami, and in the late 1960s he began to attract attention with large tableaux of figures cast from the life in fibreglass, minutely detailed, dressed in real clothes, and accompanied by real props. The subjects were usually emotive or violent, dealing with issues such as the Vietnam War or race riots. However, in 1970 Hanson abandoned these ‘expressionist’ groups, as he called them, to concentrate on figures representing mundane types. In these he commented pungently on depressing or tasteless aspects of everyday American life—down-and-outs, exhausted shoppers, or in one of his most famous works, a pair of fat, ageing, and garishly dressed sightseers (Tourists, NG of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 1970). ‘The subject matter that I like best', he wrote, ‘deals with the familiar lower and middle class American types of today. To me, the resignation, emptiness and loneliness of their existence captures the true reality of life for these people. Consequently, as a realist I'm not interested in the human form … but rather a face or body which has suffered like some weather-worn landscape the erosion of time. In portraying this aspect of life I want to achieve a certain tough realism which speaks of the fascinating idiosyncracies of our time.’