Duane Hanson
07. September 2008 bis 01. March 2009
In her main fall project the Kunsthalle Krems takes a sociocritical look on the 'American Way of Life'. Duane Hanson (1925-1996), one of the most influential realistic american sculptors of the 20th century, visualized the american everyday life with lifesized figures, true to detail, influenced by Pop Art. The role models for his sculptures were people of the american middle and lower class, they point out social and political nuisance. The human being in Hansons work became a skit, its solitude, despair, resignation and frustration became obvious. The Kunsthalle Krems shows about 30 sculptures, photo- and filmdocumentation, that illustrate Duane Hansons workflow.
Human beings are the main theme of Duane Hanson; his sculptures don't show well known persons but inconspicious average people, perishing in the crowd – housewives, building workers, waitresses, car dealers, caretaker. They are loosers in life and every day-heroes, 114 sculptures exist until today. From the late 1960s on Hanson built true-to-scale figures with fibre glass and polyester resin, he copied every skin fold accurately. He completed the finished sculptures with real clothing, wigs and accessories. Thus he created almost hyper-realistic scenes of american everyday life. Until today Hansons sculptures represent the stereotypes and prejudices stored in european brains concerning the american lifestyle. He transforms the reality of life into the realism of art, the untrue realness of his sculptures becomes everyday life in the real artworld of the museum.
Hanson owed his artistic breakthrough to his sculpture Abortion in 1965, which pictured the problem of illegal abortion. The artist expressed with his sculpture, which is also shown in the exhibition, his attitude as well as his frustration and the missing action of the government. The following years his works mainly showed social misery, racism and violence. Following this period Hanson started to create single types – representative for the society - and showed men with their solitude, desperation and helplessness. His figures seem lost, secluded, with downcast gaze and heavy standing. They are emotionally influenced by the consumer society, whose product they are and whose codes they reflect.
Hanson creates a connection between the sculpture and the observer. The relationship sender-receiver turns into a nonverbal communication, it creates a confusion of reality, fiction and perfect reflection. The observer is automatically reminded of his own experiences – perhaps with a policeman. Hanson toys with our imagination, addresses our empathy and creates thus a certain identification with his figures. The artist knows the american society from inside and shows the abortive utopia of the american dream, the divergence between hope and reality makes his sculptures a satire of themselves.
The exhibit is a cooperation with the Hanson Collection in Davie, Florida.
Curators
Dieter Buchhart / Kunsthalle Krems
Hartwig Knack / Kunsthalle Krems
Otto Letze / Institut für Kulturaustausch Tübingen
Catalogue
Duane Hanson. Sculptures of the American Dream, Hatje Cantz Verlag, € 25,00
