Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
April 2013
Welcome to the last quarter of this school year! There are only two more lessons to
present! As we continue to find the ordinary turned into the extraordinary, this month we
have two modern-day artists to introduce:
No One Saw Reflections Like Richard Estes
No One Saw People Like Duane Hanson
Richard Estes is an American artist best known for his photorealist paintings. The paintings generally consist of reflective, clean, and inanimate city and geometric landscapes, without litter, snow or landmark buildings. He is regarded as one of the founders of the international photo-­realist movement of the late 1960s, with such artists as Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, and Duane Hanson. Estes currently lives and works in New York and Maine. Duane Hanson (January 17, 1925 ± January 6, 1996) was an American artist based in South Florida, but was born in Minnesota;; a sculptor known for his life cast realistic works of people, cast in various materials, including polyester resin, fiberglass, Bondo (auto body filler), or bronze. His work is often associated with the Pop Art movement, as well as hyperrealism. As always, the information is provided to give you a basic understanding of these artists
and their work. You do not have to present all of the information to your class. Adapt
the information and your discussion to the age group to whom you are presenting. Pick
and chose as you see fit. Remember, we are limited to 30 minutes.
Thank you for taking the time to be involved, the children appreciate your time and
attention. Have fun! And, in the words of my predecessor, do it your way!
Kimberly Shoemaker
Art Appreciation Chair
704.877.6329,
OLongbourn@aol.com
Richard Estes At an early age, Estes moved to Chicago with his family, where he attended the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1956. He frequently studied the works of
realist painters such as Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper, and Thomas Eakins, who are strongly
represented in the Art Institute's collection. After he completed his course of studies, Estes
moved to New York City and, for the next ten years, worked as a graphic artist for various
magazine publishers and advertising agencies in New York and Spain. He worked for a time as
an illustrator until he was able to support himself by selling his work. Always a representational
painter, in the 1960s he began to employ a camera to record detailed information that would be
more accurate than memory or observation. During this period, he painted in his spare time. He
had lived in Spain since 1962 and, by 1966, was financially able to "quit his day job".
Estes stayed true to the photographs: when his paintings included stickers, signs, and window
displays, they were always depicted backwards, because of the reflection. His works rarely
included litter or snow around the buildings, because he believed these details would detract
attention away from the buildings themselves. The settings were always in the daytime, never
the nighttime, suggesting "vacant and quiet Sunday mornings." Estes' works strive to create a
three-dimensional feel on a two-dimensional canvas. His work has been considered using a
variety of terms, ranging from super-realism, sharp-focus realism, neo-realism, photo-realism, to
radical realism. The most frequented term is super-realism. Most of Richard's paintings from the
early 1960s are of city dwellers engaged in everyday activities. Beginning around 1967, he
began to paint storefronts and buildings with glass windows and, more importantly, the reflected
images shown on these windows. The paintings were based on color photographs he would
take, trapping the fleeting nature of the reflections, which would otherwise change with the
lighting and the time of day. He avoided using famous New York landmarks. While some
amount of alteration was done for the sake of aesthetic composition, it was important to Estes
that the central and the main reflected objects be recognizable, but also that the momentary
quality of the reflections be retained. He had his one-man show in 1968, at the Allan Stone
Gallery. His works have also been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney
Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In 1971, Estes was granted a National
Council for the Arts fellowship.
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almost always absent in these works, which instead inventory the lively patterns in the modern
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reflections within his images gave him a reputation for being obsessive in the pursuit of pictorial
similitude. In the 1980s he added scenes of Chicago, Paris, and Florence to his repertoire, and
in the 1990s he began a series of works based on the sea, including that of the Maine coast.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Estes, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1313637/Richard-­Estes Duane Hanson (born Jan. 17, 1925, Alexandria, Minn., U.S.²died Jan. 6, 1996, Boca Raton,
Fla.), American figurative sculptor whose lifelike figures made of cast fiberglass and polyester
resin and dressed in everyday clothes often fool the public into believing that they are viewing
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the Photo-realist painters of the same era, who based their paintings on photographic images.
Unlike the two-GLPHQVLRQDOSDLQWLQJVKRZHYHU+DQVRQ¶VWKUHH-dimensional objects, life-size
and realistic down to the hair on their arms, are uncanny in that they are simultaneously familiar
in their lifelike appearance and yet strange as static works of art.
Hanson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., in 1946.
He continued his studies at the University of Minnesota and in 1951 completed an M.F.A. in
sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Hanson taught for several
years in Germany, where he met the German artist George Grygo, whose work in polyester
resin and fiberglass had a great influence on his sculptures. Hanson returned to the United
States and settled in Atlanta and in 1963 began his own experiments with the material.
Hanson cast his figures from life. Hanson chose his models carefully and then posed them in a
manner that would best capture his basic theme. (His earliest work showed figures in midmotion, but he preferred the effect he obtained with static poses.) Hanson then painted the cast
figures, adding such precise details as mosquito bites or varicose veins. Finally, he clothed and
accessorized his sculptures, using props as necessary. Often he created mini-installations with
figures situated in real contexts with real things.
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homeless. Though he later tempered his political message, he continued to address the largely
thankless roles of the working class²housewives, repairmen, office cleaners, dishwashers,
museum guards, and janitors, whose bowed heads and vacant gazes reveal boredom and
exhaustion.
Duane Hanson was many times categorized as a Photorealist. However, he says that that was
the thing that annoyed him the most about his career. A photorealist is an artist that tries to
create art just how it would look in a picture. This means that their purpose is just to replicate
objects exactly like they look in real life. Hanson thought of himself as a Vernacularist, which is
someone who mimics everyday speech (talking and body language). The object of Hanson's
talents was not entirely to recreate the visible, but to give life to ideas or feelings that are not
normally thought of or expressed. The sculptures are attractive, appealing. You want to go up
and talk to them, to find out their story. They portray states of mind, feelings and inner qualities.
They cause us to examine ourselves. They are so much more than manikins. They are parts
and pieces of ourselves that we try to hide or conceal. They bring out that part of everyone that
exists, but no one wants to flaunt or make others aware of. When looking at Hanson's
sculptures, we think "I'm not one of those people". However, we all have the potential to be
examples of Hanson. Hanson is correct. He is much more than a photorealist. In creating what
we look like on the outside, Hanson illustrates what we are on the inside.
Sources: http://www.richeast.org/htwm/artists/ak/hanson.html, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/254609/Duane-­‐Hanson