Very complex because there are many different categories -
I can think of three very distinct ones
i ) Much of Warhol’s work
Here the US judicial system has decided that Warhol’s changes to his source material were sufficient to distinguish it from the originals and therefore this was not plagiarism nor breach of copyright. Apropos the later, Cambell’s soup later used Warhol’s work to promote their products - an interesting circularity!
Secondly, late C20th US feminist artists like Sherrie Levine and Louise Lawler who made copies of modernist paintings by famous C20th male artists and entitled these works ‘After…’
Thirdly, there’s someone like the US artist Richard Prince, who photographs other artists’ work without their consent, has the images screen-printed onto a canvas by technicians and then splashes some paint on top. And whom would be my favourite candidate for the ancient English punishment of hanging drawing and quartering
Speculation aside, he would, as with Marmite, either love or hate those models wearing his painting, or he would be indifferent and ignore them. Would that cover all bases?
The original Photorealist umbrella lumped together all sorts of artists whose work ranged from technically accomplished illustration, such as John Salt’s car paintings john salt car paintings - Google Search
to those who asked intelligent questions about representation, or re-presentation of images and artefacts - eg Richard Estes
By contrast, I’d lump Hanson in the ‘illustrator’ category. Like many other artists Saatchi used to collect, everything in his work is instant and after a few seconds you’ve taken everything in, and that’s it. Not so with Estes and Ray their work lingers and leaves you pondering.
I’ve always found it quite moving. The way some of his figures’ clothes are now quite fashionably retro makes them somehow of the moment and dated at the same time. I wonder about their lives even though they are sculptures and that makes the work far from instant for me.
I respect your point but I see these figures as stereotypes, or if you prefer, actors playing the roles of stereotypes, rather than as actual portraits of individuals. If I was applying contempoary criteria to these forty year old works (which I’m not) I’d add that they objectify rather than portray.
@john_hope-falkner thanks for the feedback - much appreciated. I think the red looks alot brighter because of the spotlight shining directly onto that particular painting - looking at it without the light, the red’s alot calmer and more subtle. Think you may have prompted my creative side to come out again Just purchased some clay, so not what sure what’s going to come out
I don’t ‘follow’ anyone on the internet but Kim Jung Gi, a South Korean cartoonist/illustrator, I do search for now and again and am amazed at how he draws the way he does from memory & imagination.
Unexpectedly and unhappily, he died a few weeks ago.
Undoubtedly, but at the same time I’ve never understood the fascination for who an artist ‘really’ is. You get the same queries around the author, Elena Ferrante. Enjoy their work and respect their desire for anonymity
Just purchased some clay, so not what sure what’s going to come out 
