23.05. - 11.07.2009.




"People, workers, the elderly, all these people I see with sympathy and affection. These are the people who have fought the battle of life and who now and then show the hard work and the frustration... It’s all about human activity, it’s truth, and we all get there."
This is how Duane Hanson, leading artist of the "Hyperrealist" Movement, qualifies his work.
In the 60s, he tackled timely social subjects in a brutally realist manner. These works elevated social and political issues to an iconic level. Shortly thereafter, in 1970, Hanson evolved both in terms of his style and his subject matter. He depicts the everyday people he encountered. People that nobody notices, people at a loose and desperate. He represents the human condition and pursues the fragility and distress. He treats universal themes, like poverty, bad treatment, racism, homeless or loneliness.
Duane Hanson created lifesize characters in his studio. He casts them directly from his models. He prefers to use fiberglass and resin, which allow him to reproduce, often in a little flattering way, slight details and sharpness of the human body. He gives life to his characters with a new credibility. He sometimes manages to create the illusion of the reality.
By representing the "American Way of Life", Duane Hanson transports scenes of the commonplaces to museums, to immortalize them.

About artist:

Duane Hanson was born in 1925 and passed away in 1996 (USA).
Selected Solo Exhibitions: Kunsthalle Krems, Austria; Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; Unesco Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Germany; The Art Gallery of Windsor, Canada; The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, USA; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, USA; Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy; Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland; Schirn Kunsthalle, Francfort,
Germany; Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Daimaru Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Kunstverein, Hambourg, Germany

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