Duane Hanson

Often lumped in as part of the 1960s–’70s Photorealism movement, Duane Hanson's figurative sculptures went way beyond the snapshot verisimilitude practiced by painters associated with the movement. His works, whose subjects were mostly ordinary, even schlubby, Americans, achieved a waxwork perfection so uncanny that it was easy to mistake them for living human beings. Custodians, construction workers and tourists in loud Hawaiian shirts were all given the Hanson treatment. The show at Gagosian's funky storefront venue on the Upper East Side consists of a lone sculpture of a security guard with eyes gazing at the floor in a somewhat dejected expression. Together, object and space create an urban purgatory amidst the tony precincts of Park Avenue.