Visual art
Duane Hanson
1925–1996 · sculptor
American hyperrealist sculptor of lifelike ordinary people, who earned his MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills.
- Born
Alexandria, Minnesota- Died
Boca Raton, Florida
aged 70- Detroit years
- 1950–1951
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Hanson grew up in rural Minnesota and taught high school art before enrolling at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in 1951. Cranbrook, then home to the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, gave him a grounding in figurative sculpture and a network of fellow artists. In the 1960s he began casting real people in polyester resin and fiberglass, dressing the figures in real clothes and posing them as tourists, shoppers, janitors and security guards. The eerie realism of works such as Supermarket Shopper and Tourists made him a leading name of American hyperrealism, and his work often carried social criticism. He spent most of his later career in South Florida. Cranbrook Art Museum is among the many museums that hold his sculpture.
Highlights
- MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1951
- Pioneer of hyperrealist sculpture cast from live models
- Known works: Supermarket Shopper (1970), Tourists (1970)
- Represented in the Cranbrook Art Museum collection
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1950–1951
Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum
Where he earned his MFA in 1951; the museum holds his work.