duane hanson (1925 - 1996) / the largest retrospective is on show in europe since the death of this artist ....................................................................
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duane hanson: 'more than reality' --- pac - padiglione d'arte contemporanea, milan, italy may 29 - september 01, 2002 http://www.pac-milano.org --- kunsthalle rotterdam, netherlands september 14 - november 24, 2002 http://www.kunsthal.nl --- scottish national gallery, edinburgh, scotland december 14, 2002 - february 23, 2003 http://www.nationalgalleries.org --- kunsthaus zürich, switzerland march 22 - july 13, 2003 --- the retrospective of the late photo realist sculptor duane hanson is currently in the midst of an extensive tour of european museums. 30 sculptures are on show. hanson describes the masses, their loneliness, their isolation and despair, with deeply sorrowful humour. the 'people' are so ordinary and living such ordinary lives that are borderline boring. this aspect is what makes them so incredible. they are mostly overweight, unattractive, and dirty. hanson found these people in american everyday life, and he replicated them and placed them in the museums of this world, people who in their artificial perfection, in their artificial lifelikeness brought forth bewilderment, astonishment, and dismay in all viewers. --- pop 'til you drop the contemporary fetishization of the human body. the simulacrum, whose peculiar function lies in the derealization of the whole surrounding world of everyday reality. your moment of doubt and hesitation as to the breath and warmth of these polyester figures, tends to return upon the real human beings moving about you in the gallery ... and to transform them also for the briefest instant into so many dead and flesh-colored simulacra in their own right. the world thereby momentarily loses its depth and threatens to become an illusion, a rush of filmic images without density. --- super-realist-life-sized sculptures hanson's sculptures are cast from human models and rendered in polyvinyl, auto body filler (bondo), or bronze. each figure was cast in several sections before being joined together. the 'skin' of the sculptures is painted in such detail as to resemble human flesh. the sculptures are then finished with clothing, hair, jewelry and other accessories. hanson used direct casting. it usually is assumed that each hanson figure is the likeness of a real person, but this is not the case. 'I'm not duplicating life. I'm making a statement about human values,' hanson said. when searching for a model for 'cowboy', for example, he met with several cowboys and rodeo workers, but all lacked the machismo he was looking for. instead, a carpenter served as the model for the cast. similarly, hanson sometimes would construct a single figure using molds of several people. he used the same body for 'queenie II' and the female in 'tourists II', but with different heads and different treatments of skin tone. --- biography duane hanson was born in alexandria, minnesota, in january 17, 1925. he received his BA from macalester college in 1946 and his MFA from the cranbrook academy of art in bloomfield hills, michigan in 1951. from 1953 to 1960, hanson lived in munich and bremerhaven, germany, working as an art teacher for the u.s. army dependent school system. it was in germany that he began to experiment with synthetic media, in particular polyester resin and fiberglass - materials that would become his signature media. hanson moved back to america in 1960. from 1962 - 1965 hanson was an art professor at oglethorpe university in atlanta. during this period he was commissioned to produce several large decorative sculptures for the exterior of the university building. by mid decade, he was conceiving his sculptures in the spirit of contemporaneous social protest and political agitation movements. the works dealt with issues such as racial inequality and the danger of illegal about which the artist held strong convictions. such confrontational sculptures as 'abortion' and 'gangland victim' force the audience to face challenging issues without the psychic distancing inherent to television and newspaper reports. after hanson moved to new york in 1969, his works were shown in solo exhibitions in new york and germany. because of their politically charged subject matter, several scuptures were banned from museum exhibitions and denounced by reactionary critics. from 1976-78, a major retrospective of his sculptures went on an extended museum tour throughout the united states. hanson was named florida ambassador of the arts in 1983. hanson died january 6, 1996. --- catalogue 192 pages, 170 illustrations by hatje cantz http://hatjecantz.de --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	museum guard, 1975 courtesy pac milan queenie II, 1988 courtesy pac milan supermarket shopper, 1970 courtesy pac, milan self-portrait with model, 1979 courtesy pac, milan tourists II, 1988 courtesy pac, milan