Recently I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. It was a warm summer day, a Friday. The cool interior was a pleasure to experience. The museum is open until nine o’clock on Fridays. A notable feature of the museum were the attending personnel. When compiling notes I refrained from using the word guard, it sounded incorrect, the ‘guards’ were like ambassadors. I enjoyed conversing with multiple staff members. The museum has a pronounced sense of civic engagement.
Well, how funny it is for me to reflect on Duane Hanson’s Museum Guard. The sculpture surpirised me and in turn, Mr. Hanson’s piece reminded me of passionate college years studying artistic examples at museums. Art transports us.
The subject of Duane Hanson’s pieces, and it certainly is evident in Museum Guard, is the physical presence of an individual. This realization came home full on this visit as I was fooled by the figure. I was busy ‘seeing’ art and noticed the guard out of the corner of my eye. I felt the presence, and slight pressure of the institutional figure. It was not until I returned through the gallery that I realized it was a sculpture. “Wow”, I thought.
The encounter peaked my curiosity concerning the analysis of the piece. Formally it is in imitation of an actual guard, a super realistic representation. This analysis includes that I felt the presence of an actual guard. Moreover, of interet is the layer of social interaction of individuals, how interaction takes place and why. The figure evoked in me, as a museum attendee, a social code of behavior—how to behave. So, the figure is a construct of figurative presence and social modeling. One reads the figure and responds. This is the feauture of Duane Hanson’s work that is additionally significant, the way the sculptures capture the reality of characters within a social context, and, the viewer is cast as a member of a mini drama.
The Toledo Museum of Art has a sculpture from 1971 by Duane Hanson, The Executive. In a video discussion of the piece, Dr. Steven Zucker of Smarthistory states, “Here we are talking about this constellation of social events that we can easily construct around this single figure. The artist has been able to create a kind of archetype that allows us to understand the world in which he would have existed.” (3:13, Zucker). As viewers we are socially informed as we experience the sculptures.
One of the guards at the Nelson-Atkins spoke about visiting the museum as a youth in 1974, another guard spoke about working at a special wedding event, and another guard kindly gave us complimentary tickets to a special exhibit. Considering the sculpture of Duane Hanson has led to reflections on the dimension of a museum experience and the social role of museum personnel.
By Drew Burgess
Drew Burgess is a studio art and art history professor at the College of Alameda of the Peralta Community College District of California.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Duane Hanson (American, 1925 - 1996), 1975, Polyester, Fiberglas, oil, and vinyl, 69 × 21 × 13 inches, Gift of the Friends of Art, F76-40, © Estate of Duane Hanson / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Works cited: Dr. Halona Norton-Westbrook, Toledo Museum of Art and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Duane Hanson, Executive, originally titled, Another Day," in Smarthistory, April 7, 2019, accessed July 19, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/hanson-executive/.
Cite this page: Drew Burgess, “Museum Guard at the Nelson-Atkins Museum by Duane Hanson”, July 19, 2024, https://www.drewburgess.art/museum-visits/museum-guard-at-the-nelson-atkins-museum-by-duane-hanson