DUANE HANSON
1925-1996, United StatesDuane Hanson was born in Alexandria, Minnesota in 1925, and died in Boca Raton, Florida in 1996. His iconic sculptures of working-class Americans transforms everyday gestures into symbols of contemporary society. Early works, which utilised life-size tableaux of violence and disenfranchised comminities, such as scenes of soldiers killed in action, police brutality and homelessness, confronted viewers with the shocking reality of American society whilst polarising critics. His work Abortion was widely condemned by the public, yet was instrumental to the formation of his socio-political views. The protestations that his works voiced later gave way to satirical depictions of 'typical' Americans enacting everyday rituals. Cast from life-models in his studio, and meticulously finished by hand, Hanson's sculptures are uncanny witnesses of a modern malaise that continue to find new meaning in the twenty-first century.
Selected solo exhibitions include Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (1975); Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (1977); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1979); Kunsthaus Wien, Austria (1992); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (1994, travelled to Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas); Daimaru Museum of Art, Tokyo (1995, travelled to Genichiro-Inkuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; and Kintetsu Museum of Art, Osaka); Saatchi Gallery, London (1997); Duane Hanson, A Survey of his Work from the 30's to the 90's, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale (1998, travelled to Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis); and Duane Hanson: More than Reality, 2001, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2001, traveled to Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; and Kunsthaus Zürich).
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