10 DEDOS
Acrilico sobre lino
116x89 cm
2024

SELFPORTRAIT
Acrylic on board
32,5x22.5 cm
2023

The hand serves and gives life to the sculptor, the painter, the musician, the writer, the dancer... The hand is a part of art, it participates in artistic creation. Without it, we only have the creative thoughts and intentions of the artist. What is art without the human hand? The human hand is itself a vehicle of expression, not just a tool; it channels the spirit and can transform things. Its movement, its own impulse, infuses character into what it creates. It is a part of the body, an extension of the mind, which seems to merge with the work. The artist's stroke characterizes, defines, and reveals their self. Their creative gesture is unique in each person; each hand contains an incomparable personality.

WITH THE FINGERS OF ONE HAND
Acrylic and drypoint on paper
56x48cm
2020

KEITH HARING'S ASSISTANTS
Acrylic on linen
116x89cm
2022

DESTRAPÁNDOME
Acrylic on paper
56x48cm
2024

Through hands, the artist comes into contact with matter; they use them to create, communicate, relate, and expresses emotions, feelings, attitudes through them. The hand has promoted the development of humankind and civilization. From its origins, it is a prominent element that has been part of its evolution. The hand is linked to the mind; it serves, creates, and acts according to what the mind thinks; it expresses according to what the person feels; it communicates through its gestures, even supporting verbal language. Its generative, expressive, and relational capacity is extensive, and in its gestures and actions, it manifests this potential. As Focillon says, hands are "endowed with an energetic and free genius, with a physiognomy - faces without eyes and without voice, but that see and speak."

MALEVICH’S ASSISTANTS
Acrylic on linen
80X80cm
2023

It is in the 20th century when artists begin to portray their own hands and fingerprints in his works. They become a subject of reflection. What did they see in their hands? What did they feel for them? Those hands that sometimes seem to have their own desires. They undoubtedly give them value: they turn them into works of art! It can be a way to honor them, both for the favor they do them and for their creative power. The hand is the symbol par excellence of creation. Likewise, it is a way to highlight that part of their body that symbolically sets them apart or represents them as creators. Their hands are the symbolic representation of themselves since the fragment evokes totality, but above all, they reveal the genius of the artist.

Mónica Cerrada Macías, Artist and Fine Arts Teacher. Universidad Complutense de Madrid