Tourists II 1988

Duane Hanson made these figures of polyester resin, Bondo, fiberglass, and paint to create this tableau of two tourists. I can imagine Hanson in his studio, carefully layering each strand of synthetic hair onto the figures, adjusting the tilt of the woman’s sunglasses, probably taking hours, days, or even weeks to arrive at the finished sculpture! I imagine it would be like painting in slow motion, building up color and form with obsessive precision. He made so many works of ordinary people, a janitor, a house painter. For Hanson, the material itself becomes a way of thinking through ideas about realism, representation, and the everyday. It's like he’s challenging us to reconsider what we value, who we see, and what it means to truly look at the world around us. He’s in conversation with all the other artists who have ever looked at everyday life and then made something from it.