THE AMERICANS ARE COMING! ~ and Sculptor Duane Hanson Made Them

Friday, 13 April 2007 02:15

COPENHAGEN - They are typical Americans: The pumped bodybuilder, the pensioner couple in the too gaudy clothes, the high school kid, the cowboy and the chubby, sun-scorched lady in the large-patterned bikini with matching bathing cap.  Now a body of them are invading Denmark – the American artist Duane Hanson’s exceptionally lifelike figures. The verisimilitude is astounding; it is almost unfathomable how it is possible. And with a humanity that makes us realize that they are more than just typical Americans.  They are also merely people . . They settled in ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in the exhibition DUANE HANSON – Sculptures of the American Dream.  On exhibition until 3 June, 2007.

An elderly couple are sitting on a bench in ARKEN’s Art Axis.  They look like just another two exhausted museum visitors, sitting there next to each other, taking a well-earned rest amid the flurry of impressions.  However, they are actually life-sized sculptures, cast in bronze by the American sculptor Duane Hanson (1925-1996).  With equal parts tenderness, humor and barbed criticism he depicts American middleclass life in the post-war years.

As American as apple pie – and universally human
Duane Hanson confronts us with the typical prejudices about Americans – they are naïve, superficial, heavy consumers… Yet he does so with a humanity that makes it impossible for us to reject them.  His figures are the spitting images of real people we know from our own lives.  Types we meet in the office, at the gym, in the supermarket, and wherever else everyday life takes us.  They are utterly ordinary and by no means conspicuous.  They are just there.  Just like us.  And yet they possess a certain quality.  A quite unique mix of melancholy and a sense of ludicrousness, which manifests itself in the combination of their downcast eyes, worn clothes and heavy bearing, making them appear both as American as apple pie – and universally human.

The land of opportunity
To face Duane Hanson’s sculptures is to confront the illusion of USA and its reverse. He spotlights how the notion of the land of opportunity translates into the real world.  The generational portrait, which his sculptures paint, of the history of the Americans from the 1960s onwards is both satirical, critical of society and sympathetic.  Duane Hanson’s breakthrough was a series of highly controversial works that unequivocally took a stance in the political reality of America at the time.  One of these works is Abortion (1965), a depiction of the fatal consequences of an illegal abortion that was a contribution to the vehement resistance to the restrictive abortion legislation of the day.  Later on Hanson’s interest in social reality adopted a more satirical guise.

Focusing on the petit bourgeois, often unfulfilled dreams and ambitions of the middleclass, he made works such as Man with Walkman (1989): His overweight and sluggish posture is a glaring contrast to the promises of speed, energy and lightness held in this sporty attire, the Toyota bag at his side and his “Lite” promotional cap.  Towards the end of his life Hanson turned to a series of more melancholy sculptures of characteristic types of all ages.  These figures are primarily concerned with universal living conditions and the phases of human life.

The exhibition DUANE HANSON – Sculptures of the American Dream is organized by Institut für Kulturaustausch, Tübingen, Germany. The exhibition at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art is the first venue on a tour.  Subsequently the exhibition is shown at the City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland, and UNESCO Kulturerbe Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Germany.  In connection with the exhibition Hatje Cantz publishes a fully illustrated catalogue in collaboration with ARKEN.  Visit the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art at : www.arken.dk