"Duane Hanson: Photographs"
2004-01-29 until 2004-03-20
Laurence Miller Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America

It is with great pleasure that Laurence Miller Gallery presents the never before exhibited photographs by sculptor Duane Hanson (1925 - 1996). This exhibition commemorates the gallery‚s twentieth anniversary and consists of forty pieces. From January 29 through March 20, 2004, the gallery will showcase Hanson's small-scale color photographs, arranged in carefully constructed columns, grids and diptychs.

The opportunity to view these photographs, which Hanson created as studies for his iconic hyperrealist sculptures, represents a watershed in Hanson's oeuvre and initiates meditation on the relationship between photography, sculpture, art and life. The photographs will be accompanied by two original Hanson sculptures and a catalog with an essay by Vicki Goldberg.

Although Hanson began making realistic sculptures in 1967, he introduced an Instant Camera into his artistic process in 1977. His focus was never in glamorizing or idealizing his subjects; rather he photographed and proceeded to realistically sculpt everyday people ˆ construction workers on a lunch break, tourists donning brightly printed shirts, or a high school student quietly resting. He photographed his subjects repeatedly, to visually record the slight differences in posing or prop placement. For his sculpture Tourists II, 1988, the shifting of an arm or the exclusion of sunglasses differentiates the images from each other and creates a subtle, yet powerful narrative between them.

Although intended as vehicles to facilitate sculpture, the photographs stand strongly and elegantly on their own. A vertical grid entitled Cowboy, 1984, contains twenty images. Viewers see the cowboy in subtly different poses, each reflecting a minor change - his hand placement, the shifting of the hips, or the adjustment of his lasso. The cowboy appears as though cast in a blue fog, which heightens both the grid‚s beauty and the intrigue it engenders.

This exhibition allows the public to view and contemplate the photographic sketches that predated and inspired Hanson‚s monumental sculptures, while securing the artist a place within the history of serial imaging alongside Eadweard Muybridge and Andy Warhol.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York