Duane Hanson

Duane Elwood Hanson was an American sculptor who was best known for his figural sculptures which were cast from actual people. An aspiring artist for much of his life, Hanson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College when he was just 21 years of age. After a brief stint as a high school art teacher he attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art and completed his Master of Fine Arts degree. In the late1960s Hanson created several fiberglass figural casts all of which regarded political and/or societal issues; often depicted using dark subject matter. A few examples of these include his Abortion which depicted a woman undergoing an illicit surgical procedure and Race Riot which involved aCaucasian police officer attacking an African American man. After casting these works Hanson would then paint detailed skin markings, such as blood vessels and facial blemishes, in order to make the sculptures appear as realistic as possible. These sculptures and the social commentary theme were heavily inspired by French realists Honore Daumier and Jean-Francois Millet; both of whom Hanson respected and admired. After 1970 Hanson abandoned his grotesque style and instead focused on more subtle ways of depicting his social comments in his sculpting.One of the ways he accomplished this was that the new style did very little to separate the viewer from the sculpture. Whereas his earlier works were spatially confined, the newer creations lacked definitive boundaries and this combined with his hyper realistic technique would oftentimes quite literally make the viewer feel as though they were within the sculpture.