This book explores the deeply human and sensitive nature of hyperrealist sculpture, a movement that emerged in the United States in the 1960s and, and following several decades of an art scene dominated by abstraction, it marked - together with Pop Art - a radical new return to figuration.
Since the end of the 20th century, this art form has also experienced an unexpected revival of interest in the Western world. This catalogue has been compiled for the important Spring-Summer 2023 exhibition at the Musée d'arts de Nantes, which is the only public collection in France to include a sculpture by the pioneer of hyperrealism, American artist Duane Hanson. It allows the reader to discover how this meticulously realistic figurative art was able to develop a new approach to the challenges of sculpture and portraiture that went beyond social and political dimensions and put the individual back at the heart of the process of artistic creation.
Text in English and French.