In Good Hands - Esther

Glancing back, I was quite surprised I hadn’t featured hands as a stand-alone subject in the arty blog already (I’m still not convinced). Hand images in art have made it in now & then, including Henry Moore’s quite recently, but they surely deserve an entry of their own. There’s a rich seam of hands in art. They’ve appeared in cave paintings, ancient & Medieval art; they’ve been stylised, flattened & foreshortened. & now they’re being blogged. Fear not though, I’ll avoid the ubiquitous likes of Michelangelo, Dürer or Leonardo this time. 

I’m in awe of anyone that can successfully draw or paint hands believably. I’ve tried various methods to improve my own hand drawing techniques, including online courses specific to the task, but the results are very hit or miss. Nine times out of ten, I’ll make them look like a pile of sausages or find a way to miss them out altogether. & please don’t ask me to put in accurate detail. Yet, I can’t resist including them. They’re an enormous part of our Selves.

Hands feature so widely in art because they’re almost as expressive as our faces. Or at least as revealing. Whether we’re waving them about, hiding them in our pockets, pointing, clasping them, covering ourselves or leaving them hanging at our sides, hands are prolific communicators. When children begin to draw people, the heads & limbs are first to emerge & then there’s a stage of development where hands begin to figure. Yes, with a great many fingers, but even that tells a tale. 

It’s no wonder hands appear so regularly in idiomatic language too: we hand things in…or out…or off, we are dealt hands, giving someone a hand can mean applause or helping, we live from hand to mouth, we can even be a safe pair. I could go on, but won’t, as there’s art to appreciate. It’s an art blog, not a literary one. My hands are tied.

Denis Sarazhin (b. 1982) Letting Go (2017)

Denis Sarazhin’s works focus on the human figure & in my opinion he is the true torch-bearer for what Schiele began. Sarazhin’s art is the expression through the human form. Often twisted, complex or with multiple figures, his highly-accomplished painting style reminds me what art really is & what it is for. He frequently uses hands only & despite the nod to a realistic depiction, the fingers may be twisted & knobbly, elongated as Egon used to make them. 

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), Metaphysical Interior with Hand of David (1968)

Well now look, Michelangelo has sneaked his way in via de Chirico’s surrealist composition after all.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), The Hand of God (original model 1895, carved c. 1907)

He brought us The Thinker & now he gives us something to think about. From one angle, Rodin has produced a wonderful hand sculpture, oddly disconnected from everything else. When it’s spun round however, we see that the hand has hewn little people: it’s created Adam & Eve. The piece is symbolic of the conception & formation of art. There’s an odd sense of sculptor as deity that would surely have been shocking to some & might still seem somewhat cheeky today.

MC Escher (1898-1972), Drawing Hands (1948)

Also kind of ubiquitous, but I’ll never pass up a chance to include an old Maurits paradox. The hands draw each other into being...

Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908), Clasped Hands of Robert & Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1853)

Harriet Hosmer was the first woman to become a professional sculptor. It was her suggestion that the poet couple sit for a sculpture of their clasped hands. The result is a very touching expression of their famous love for each other. In my view, any danger of sentimentality is overcome through the poignancy & intimate nature of the piece & the clear difference in size & detail of the hands.

David Barnes (?), Hands & Molecule (2000)

Celebrating the discovery & manufacture of medicines in the Kent area, the sculpture also serves as a landmark for the National Cycle Network, a route of cycle paths across the country. 

David Wilkie (1785-1841), John Opie (1761-1807) (c. 1805)

I feel a bit cruel including this. As I’ve said, I’m atrocious at drawing hands but I’m not including any of my disasters. The artist needs to get hands right or it can be jarring & odd. In the world of graphic novels they say that if you can’t depict hands you’ll have a short career. Take this earlier example by David Wilkie. He’s usually a wonderful artist but fingers simply aren’t supposed to do that. Thankfully he got it together in other paintings & he was a successful portrait & landscape artist.

Quentin Metsys (1466-1530), The Lender & His Wife (1514)

There are times of course when hands in art are just doing something normal. They are busy performing some menial or ordinary task. Here the subjects’ hands perform their jobs delicately & are painted by Metsys with sensitivity.

Bruce Nauman (b. 1941), Untitled (Hand Circle) (1996)

Cast from the artist’s own hands & made using bronze, silver solder & copper, each hand is gesturing in a different way.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti  (1828-1882), Study for “La Bella Mano” (1875)

& as we’ve been reminded - & have reminded ourselves & others – countless times over the last three years, we need to keep our human paws clean. As ever, Rossetti’s chalk-drawn subject seems away with the fairies & not really paying attention to the task at…er…hand. 

Egon Schiele (1890-1918)

As I’ve mentioned, Egon had a thing about hands. He understood their power in image, interaction & expression & he created some of the most fabulously communicative examples in all of art history. Even in photographs of the artist himself, he features his hands in contorted poses alongside some tremendous face-pulling. There’s a school of thought in stage or theatre presentation that promotes avoidance of “lazy hands,” i.e. the hands have got to be busy or “doing something” all the time the performer is onstage. Egon took that philosophy to the art world in spades. He gives his hands an independent sentience in a way no other artist has.