#jan michael

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Houston Person - Harmony - Lp - Mercury rec. - 1977

[audiemurphy1945]

Jan Michael, "Hanson's Humans", Esquire, 1976

"There are only six real people on these eight pages. The others are art. They’re creations molded in polyester resin, talc and fiber glass from bandage-and-plaster casts of real people, and they’re all by artist Duane Hanson, who says his purpose is to show “common people, working-class people, the downtrodden, losers. Their side of life shows how difficult it really is for people to get along.” The losers get along nicely in the houses of the well-to-do, as you can see, even though critics have questioned whether the sculptures are art after all or more like store-window dummies. Hanson’s works can be found in museums around the world but are most startling in the homes of private collectors. The Drug Addict here, for example, prepares to shoot up in Richard Brown Baker’s New York City apartment.

Many people will not walk into the same room with the Man Playing Solitaire. One young housekeeper still thinks the man had died and been stuffed. Actually, Hanson’s father modeled for the piece. When the work, bound to its chair with rope for shipping, was delivered in an open truck to its owners, the William Jaeger family of New York, a neighborhood policeman stopped the truck, suspecting a kidnapping. He insisted on touching the sculpture before releasing the truck driver."

[lisamarie-vee]

[lisamarie-vee]

[lisamarie-vee]

[lisamarie-vee]

[lisamarie-vee]

[dozydawn]

L’Officiel, 1983.

Photographed by Jan Michael.