Duane Hanson

Duane Hanson's larger-than-life figures seem to have sprung directly from the waxworks of ordinary life. In the museum, they quickly become the favourites of visitors, are beleaguered by school kids and jealously protected by museum attendants. Those who dare to closely approach the casts, made from polyester resin, are rewarded with an unabashed look at things which could never be so uninhibitedly studied on the real model: wrinkles, facial hair and other bodily imperfections. And yet, Duane Hanson's objective is not blatant voyeurism but the opening of a view onto those things we prefer to overlook, onto the drabness of everyday life, and in the last consequence onto mortality - also that of the viewer. The helpless, empty gaze, which characterizes almost all of his figures, testifies to the high price paid by many for a life in the American dream. This monograph documents all stages of Hanson's original work, his "oeuvre".