Yesterday’s post featuring drawings by Kathe Kollwitz introduced the idea of hands as expressive elements within a drawing. I was so excited about the idea of hands doing the talking for a face in a drawing that I made a class to study expressive hands and heads, and I started collecting examples. Some I collected because I appreciated the rendering. Some I collected because the artist surpassed drawing and the art reads as pure expression. I collected so many I’m sending them in installments. This is Part 2 of…. several.
Today is a repost of hands drawn by sculptor Henry Moore. I value drawings by sculptors because they have something in them that’s not commonly found in drawings by artists with a 2D focus. Notice how in these studies of his own hands, Moore doesn’t solely use line to describe visual experiences like light and shadow, he also uses line to describe sculptural experiences like volume, mass, weight, texture, and contour. See how the flesh looks soft, squishy or plump or saggy, while the fingernails or areas where bone is just under the surface looks more rigid. These drawings are physical.
The Artist’s Hand IV 1979 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1986 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02910
The Artist’s Hand III 1979 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1986 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02909
The Artist’s Hand I 1979 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1986 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02907
The Artist’s Hand V 1979 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1986 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02911
Moore drew hands to describe the aged body. He made a series of drawings of his own hands when he was eighty-one and suffering from ill-health, and he did more of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin’s gnarled joints. ‘Hands can convey so much’ he said, ‘they can beg or refuse, take or give, be open or clenched, show content or anxiety. They can be young or old, beautiful or deformed’.
Hands of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin II 1978 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1982 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02643
Hands of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin III 1978 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1982 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02644
Hands of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin V 1978 Henry Moore OM, CH 1898-1986 Presented by the Henry Moore Foundation 1982 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P02646
“Moore believed his prints were part of a larger history of sculpture and painting, in which artists have shown feelings through their portrayal of hands.” (Source: Tate. Previously posted on V. Notes August 26, 2016)
The Migration Series In 1941, Jacob Lawrence, then just twenty-three years old, completed a series of sixty paintings about the Great Migration, the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Lawrence’s work is a landmark in the history of modern art and a key example of the way that …
[image_with_animation image_url=”11400″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Copper plate with grey ink (see print a few pics below) I met with Nikki today to get some schoolin’ on drypoint. Dypoint, the art of scratching a shiny surface with a pointy thing, seemed to me to be an easy form of printmaking because I can draw with …
Welcome to the last stretch of our 30SAL Creative Challenge. Today is Transcription day, and we are going Baroque. Make a transcription of this portrait of the Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress by Velazquez. What’s a transcription? In art, to transcribe is to copy or record information in a different form than the original. To transcribe a …
Last Tuesday for our observational drawing I posted a challenge to draw your unmade beds. In return you posted exceptionally beautiful drawings, proof that lack of housekeeping makes for good art. Your drawings were so personal and beautifully rendered that decided to propose a similar measure of housekeeping for today’s challenge: laundry. Artist’s choice materials. …
Drawing Hands: Henry Moore
Yesterday’s post featuring drawings by Kathe Kollwitz introduced the idea of hands as expressive elements within a drawing. I was so excited about the idea of hands doing the talking for a face in a drawing that I made a class to study expressive hands and heads, and I started collecting examples. Some I collected because I appreciated the rendering. Some I collected because the artist surpassed drawing and the art reads as pure expression. I collected so many I’m sending them in installments. This is Part 2 of…. several.
Today is a repost of hands drawn by sculptor Henry Moore. I value drawings by sculptors because they have something in them that’s not commonly found in drawings by artists with a 2D focus. Notice how in these studies of his own hands, Moore doesn’t solely use line to describe visual experiences like light and shadow, he also uses line to describe sculptural experiences like volume, mass, weight, texture, and contour. See how the flesh looks soft, squishy or plump or saggy, while the fingernails or areas where bone is just under the surface looks more rigid. These drawings are physical.
Moore drew hands to describe the aged body. He made a series of drawings of his own hands when he was eighty-one and suffering from ill-health, and he did more of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin’s gnarled joints. ‘Hands can convey so much’ he said, ‘they can beg or refuse, take or give, be open or clenched, show content or anxiety. They can be young or old, beautiful or deformed’.
“Moore believed his prints were part of a larger history of sculpture and painting, in which artists have shown feelings through their portrayal of hands.” (Source: Tate. Previously posted on V. Notes August 26, 2016)
Ruthie teaches art classes at Seattle Artist League. Click here to sign up for drawing, painting, pottery, and more!
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Jacob Lawrence Migration Series
The Migration Series In 1941, Jacob Lawrence, then just twenty-three years old, completed a series of sixty paintings about the Great Migration, the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Lawrence’s work is a landmark in the history of modern art and a key example of the way that …
My first drypoint prints
[image_with_animation image_url=”11400″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Copper plate with grey ink (see print a few pics below) I met with Nikki today to get some schoolin’ on drypoint. Dypoint, the art of scratching a shiny surface with a pointy thing, seemed to me to be an easy form of printmaking because I can draw with …
Day 27: Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress #30SAL
Welcome to the last stretch of our 30SAL Creative Challenge. Today is Transcription day, and we are going Baroque. Make a transcription of this portrait of the Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress by Velazquez. What’s a transcription? In art, to transcribe is to copy or record information in a different form than the original. To transcribe a …
30SAL Challenge: Crumpled, Rumpled, or Neat
Last Tuesday for our observational drawing I posted a challenge to draw your unmade beds. In return you posted exceptionally beautiful drawings, proof that lack of housekeeping makes for good art. Your drawings were so personal and beautifully rendered that decided to propose a similar measure of housekeeping for today’s challenge: laundry. Artist’s choice materials. …