Duane Hanson

Sculptor

• Born: January 17, 1925
• Birthplace: Alexandria, Minnesota
• Died: January 6, 1996
• Place of death: Boca Raton, Florida

Education: Macalester College, University of Minnesota, Cranbrook Academy of Art

Significance: Duane Hanson became one of the most celebrated American sculptors of the twentieth century with his strikingly realistic, life-sized depictions of ordinary Americans engaged in mostly mundane activities. His work satirized the modern world while bringing humor and humanity to some of its overlooked citizens.

Background

Duane Hanson was born in Alexandria, Minnesota, on January 17, 1925. His upbringing was not a conventionally artistic one. His father was a dairy farmer. His local library had only one book about art. Still, Hanson discovered a love for visual expression, particularly three-dimensional renderings of the human form. He borrowed the one available library book and attempted to create wooden figures based on its illustrations. When he was thirteen years old, Hanson made his first sculpture based on the portrait The Blue Boy (1770) by Thomas Gainsborough. Hanson scoured his house for art supplies, occasionally carving the handles of his mother's brooms. His childhood may have helped condition him to create art from everyday items and ideas in celebration of real life.

Hanson pursued art at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1946. He proceeded to the University of Minnesota and then to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He graduated from the latter in 1951 with a master of fine arts degree. Few sculptures survive from Hanson's college years, but he learned about many artistic movements and experimented with various styles during this time. During the period of his education and early career, the art world was shifting between realism and abstraction. Some artists favored subjects and presentation styles that echoed realistic truths. A growing number, however, preferred abstract designs that conveyed ideas and emotions using images and techniques not common in everyday life.

As a student still honing his craft and style, Hanson tested both realism and abstraction. However, the fascinations of his youth and his upbringing in practical, real-world creativity made him lean toward realism. That put him at odds with most of the art world, which favored abstraction. The emergence of new styles, such as pop art, once again returned realism to the forefront. This shift in artistic preference gave Hanson an advantage in having his work noticed and appreciated by critics and the public. As he created his own early works and began finding his niche in the art world, Hanson took teaching assignments in Germany and the United States before settling in Florida to focus on his own artistic creations.

Life's Work

In the 1950s, Hanson began to experiment with unusual new forms of art materials. He sought new uses for inexpensive synthetic media such as fiberglass, resin, vinyl, and automotive repair putty. By the 1960s, back in the United States, he was casting and sculpting these materials to painstakingly craft life-size human figures with strikingly realistic detailing. His figures, wearing real clothes and using real props, were engaged in a variety of activities. Some were intentionally boring activities; others were disturbing, sad, or even grotesque. Hanson's combination of unglamorous subjects, intense realism, and social commentary won immediate recognition for his work by pop art critics. Like other pop art pioneers, Hanson took regular, even unappealing, subjects and elevated them to fine art.

Hanson's first projects often involved shock value and were intended to convey horror to viewers. Throughout the late 1960s, his subjects included soldiers at war in Vietnam, victims of accidents and violence, a woman who died during an abortion, and rioting protestors meant to reflect the turbulence of the era. These works won him acclaim and prominent exhibitions at galleries and museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the OK Harris Gallery in New York City. He also began exhibiting in Germany, giving his stark visions an international audience. However, Hanson's greatest popularity began in the 1970s, when he shifted away from his focus on horror and began to portray, and subtly celebrate, the banal realities of modern, middle-class American life.

Starting in the 1970s, Hanson achieved his final and most popular style. His works involved photo-realistic sculptures of everyday Americans engaged in everyday activities. These were people not typically celebrated in art: the elderly, dowdy, poor, or overweight. His subjects included sanitation workers, repairmen, kitchen helpers, and housewives, many looking tired, sad, or bored. Hanson surrounded these sculptures with displays of real furniture, clothing, props, and other accessories. Viewers marveled at how strikingly lifelike the sculptures were. In many cases, viewers mistook them for living people. Critics pored over the social commentary and Hanson's style, which reflected an attitude that satirized American culture but often in a loving and humorous manner.

Dozens of Hanson's sculptures reached international fame, but a few became classics. One of his most famous early works, Tourists (1970), showed two elderly people wearing strikingly gaudy summer outfits, searching for photo opportunities. Young Shopper (1973) portrayed a stocky woman struggling to carry bags full of purchases; Hanson commented that she seemed to be reduced to a bag herself, only capable of carrying consumer goods and her own problems and weariness. Queenie II (1988) portrayed an overweight cleaning woman with a wheeled garbage can, spray bottles of cleansers, and a feather duster. Her face looks resigned to her menial tasks but invites the viewer to reflect on her human dignity and appreciate her tireless and thankless labor.

Impact

Duane Hanson became one of the most celebrated American sculptors of the twentieth century. Although his work was hailed as pop art, Hanson never focused much on art schools or philosophies. Rather, he used the techniques of realism to capture and convey truths about modern life in the United States. With subtle satire, he captured the boredom, sadness, determination, and hope of regular Americans. His work inspired many other artists of the photorealism and hyperrealism schools and encouraged them to seek out strange beauty in nontraditional art subjects. Hanson's work has been displayed in dozens of galleries and museums worldwide.

Personal Life

Hanson moved to Florida in 1973 and lived there until his death in Boca Raton on January 6, 1996.He died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He and his wife, Wesla, had five children.

Principal Works

Abortion, 1965

Tourists, 1970

Young Shopper, 1973

Man on a Bench, 1977

Self-Portrait with Model, 1979

Bus Stop Lady, 1983

Queenie II, 1988

Tourists II, 1988

Flea Market Lady, 1990

Car Dealer, 1992

Bibliography

Buchsteiner, Thomas, and Otto Letze. Duane Hanson: Sculptures of the American Dream. Distributed Art Publishers, 2007.

"Duane Hanson." Encyclopedia of Sculpture, www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/duane-hanson.htm. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

"Duane Hanson." Saatchi Gallery, www.saatchigallery.com/artists/duane‗hanson.htm. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

"Duane Hanson." Serpentine Galleries, 2015, www.serpentinegalleries.org/sites/default/files/press-releases/duane‗hanson‗press‗release‗final‗0.pdf. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

"Duane Hanson (American, 1925–1996)." Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/duane-hanson. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Kimmelman, Michael. "Duane Hanson, 70, Sculptor of Super-Realistic Figures, Dies." New York Times, 1996, www.nytimes.com/1996/01/10/nyregion/duane-hanson-70-sculptor-of-super-realistic-figures-dies.html?mcubz=0. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Ly, Tin. Duane Hanson: Portraits from the Heartland. Plains Art Museum, 2004.

Marter, Joan, editor. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Vol. 2. Oxford UP, 2011.