The American sculptor Duane Hanson (1925-1996) was one of the leading sculptors working in a super-realist, or Verist, style. His work is highly illusionistic, but also has a social content. While his early works dealt with physical violence or social issues, his later work seems to portray passive, isolated figures as victims of society and negative values.

Duane Hanson was born January 17, 1925, in Alexandria, Minnesota. After attendance at Luther College and the University of Washington, he graduated from Macalaster College in 1946. Following a period teaching high school art, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Cranbrook Academy in 1951.

Around 1966 Hanson began making figural casts using fiberglass and vinyl. Works that first brought him notice were of figures grouped in tableaux, usually of brutal and violent subjects, somewhat similar to the work of Edward Keinholz. Hanson's Abortion (1966) was inspired by the horrors of a backroom procedure...