Walking late at night down Park Avenue, I stumbled across what seemed to be an empty room with a bored security guard watching nothing. I walked past the gallery without even realizing it was a gallery. It wasn’t until I was down the block that I realized that that couldn’t have been a human being. I went back, and stared at the figure to watch for any movement. Then, I realized that it was a gallery and that the security guard was just a sculpture. 

The sculpture is done by Duane Hanson. It’s a life-size sculpture. Made from bronze, polychromed with oil and with mixed media accessories. Duane Hanson also created other human sculptures. He created hyper-realistic ones that portrayed the American working-class—probably the reason I thought it was so real. Some of Hanson’s other works include “Woman with Dog” and “Man on Mower,” shown below.

My favorite part of these sculptures is that they portray average American life. Hanson does not work to sugar-coat anything. He makes people the way that they are. He uses the sculptures, but also real items. All props are real, which forces Hanson to make the sculptures themselves as realistic as possible. The sculptures must properly fit with the persona he is creating, and also must fit in terms of size. These are so unique, that they make you second guess whether or not they are real even after you know that they aren’t. Duane Hanson definitely showed me that this type of art can be extremely realistic. It is a true talent to develop these pieces of art.