This revised reprint of our best-selling monograph on American artist Duane Hanson (1925–1996) documents all phases of his oeuvre and includes a catalogue raisonné of his sculptures. Every museum visitor is familiar with Hanson’s hyperrealistic figures, which are beleaguered by school children and jealously protected by museum guards. Those who dare to move close to the polyester-resin casts are rewarded with a view of things which could never be studied so candidly in real life: wrinkles, facial hair, and other bodily imperfections. And yet Duane Hanson’s objective is not blatant voyeurism but to access those things we prefer to overlook, to see the drabness of everyday life and our own final mortality. 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. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-1938-4)
 
 
Exhibition schedule: ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen January 27–June 3, 2007  · City Art Museum, Helsinki, June 14–October 1, 2007 · UNESCO Kulturerbe Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Germany, October  20, 2007–April 27, 2008  · HK Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China, May 15–July 30, 2008