Hand Made: The Art of the Hand

Hand Made: the Art of the Hand

Hands are one of the most essential elements in our daily lives. They can comfort, direct, create, destroy and even help us communicate. It’s no wonder then that artists have been inspired over the years to depict this pervasive extremity. This exhibition presents photographs, drawings, prints, sculptures and film from the museum’s permanent collection that focus on the hand. Collectively they demonstrate this subject’s everlasting appeal and the myriad reasons artists have chosen to highlight this appendage.

For artists such as Yvonne Rainer and Robert Thomas, the hand is treated as a purely physical object that stands on its own, unencumbered by further meaning. Rainer makes this plain in relation to her video Hand Movie, 1966 where she describes her hand as a malleable sculptural object divorced from overt symbolism. Artists such as Edouard Boubat, Rico Lebrun and John Coplans have focused on hands as a means for discussing larger social issues. Photographer John Coplans focused on specific portions of his aging body, like his hands, forcing the viewer to witness the changes being wrought. As he states, “It’s a neglected subject matter.” Other artists, such as Howard Warshaw, Connor Everts, and Rudolph Schindler have turned to this subject purely for the challenge of depicting such a complex subject. In short, it becomes a means by which they can display their artistic abilities. In Warshaw’s case he made frequent depictions of hands throughout his career. While his depictions are rooted in the anatomy of the hand they are represented in a multitude of ways using touches of collage and stylistic elements borrowed from cubism and surrealism.

Hand Made demonstrates only a few of the ways artists have been inspired to turn to the commonplace hand, which will no doubt continue to fascinate artists.