Duane Hanson

Queenie can be understood on one level as the personification of all those resigned-looking women who drag their bodies around in pursuit of the mess created by the rest of us.  But we are made to confront the fact that such women, who are usually invisible and ignored, are not just faceless domestics. 

Man on a bench

1997-98, vinyl,
polychromed in oil,
with accessories
life size

Duane Hanson’s hyper-real Old Man on a Bench is in a peculiarly modern predicament of drifting or simply existing, merely marking time on his way from birth to death.

Woman with child in stroller

1985, autobody
filler, polyvinyl and
mixed media, with
accessories
life size

The insistence on the irreplaceability of each person, and on the dignity to be accorded to those who are usually overlooked or spurned as ordinary are central to Duane Hanson’s art and humanitarian vision.

Flea market vendor

1990, polychromed
bronze, with
accessories
life size

Duane Hanson’s sculptures of people are just too believable. Creating vignettes of real American life, he doesn’t forget a single detail. Casting his figures from live models in his studio, Duane Hanson then adorned them with every attribute of life-likeness from tiny body hairs, varicose viens, bruises, and hangnails. He hand picked their clothes from second hand shops, and accessorised them accordingly. 

Traveller

1988, autobody
filler, fibreglass
and mixed media
with accessories
life size

The Traveller snoozes sunburned and hung over in a pile of cheap luggage waiting exhaustedly for a connecting flight home.