{"data":{"id":"560","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":560,"topgoose_id":3045,"tms_id":560,"display_name":"Duane Hanson","sort_name":"Hanson Duane","display_date":"1925–1996","begin_date":"1925","end_date":"1996","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDuane Hanson began casting from live models in 1967 and for several years created expressionist tableaux addressing politically charged subjects such as the race riots of 1968 and the Vietnam War. By the early 1970s he increasingly focused on the individual figure, refining his lifelike sculptures by hand-painting their skin and clothing them with carefully selected garments and props. Depicting archetypes from everyday American life, the hyperreal sculptures are easily mistaken for live people. Hanson is often associated with the Photorealist movement that emerged during this period, but unlike these painters, who meticulously copied photographs, Hanson blended different models, gestures, and expressions for emotional impact. His characters are chosen to highlight the daily lives of lower- and middle-class Americans—construction workers, museum guards, old women, and policemen in forlorn poses. Like \u003ca href=\"/artists/621\"\u003eEdward Hopper\u003c/a\u003e’s subjects, they articulate the loneliness and resignation of the individual in modern society.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRepresentative of Hanson’s\nmature work,\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/2160\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWoman with Dog\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e portrays an aging, overweight, bespectacled woman on a chair, her dog curled up asleep on a rug beside her. The woman was cast from life and constructed of fiberglass- reinforced resin, meticulously painted. The dog, molded by hand, is adorned with actual canine hair. Hanson’s detailed focus adds to the despondency of the scene. “I’m not duplicating life, I’m making a statement about human values,” he has explained. “My work deals with people who lead lives of quiet desperation. I show the empty-headedness, the fatigue, the aging, the frustration.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500007844","wikidata_id":"Q706462","created_at":"2017-08-31T10:20:21.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-28T01:33:21.754-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/560/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/560/exhibitions"}}}}