PAST PROJECT

Duane Hanson

Duane Hanson's early sculptures depicted people in violent situations. The subject matter was topical; it dealt with race riots, abortion, motorcycle accidents, and the Vietnam War. In 1970, Hanson began to focus on a more insidious subject in 'turn[ing] his attention from topics that were less sensational, depicting psychological and spiritual malaise rather than the extremes of human suffering.' (Christine Lindey)

Hanson achieved startlingly life like figures that often fooled people into thinking they were living beings. He often used friends and family as models, including Robert Thiele as the model for 'Football Player' (now in the permanent collection of the Lowe Museum, Coral Gables, FL). Hanson and Thiele were faculty members in the Art Department at Miami-Dade Community College (now known as Miami Dade College), North Campus.

Hanson often made multiple castings of a model's head, hands, and body parts before choosing the one most appropriate. These works, particularly the heads, in their raw "unfinished" state now appear as relics from an Etruscan or Roman excavation; transcendently beautiful as the are compellingly mysterious. They have been exhibited in Denmark at the Arken Museum in Ishoj (2007), Helsinki Art Museum in Finland (2007), Volkingen, Germany (2007), Kunsthalle Krems in Vienna, Austria (2008-09), Fundacion Canal in Madrid, Spain (2008), Musee de la Cite, Paris (2010), Burda Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany (2010-11), and Museum d'Ixelles in Brussels, Belgium (2014).