Styles+of+Expression

=Styles of Expression = ===//"And what about our hands? With them we request, promise, summon, dismiss, menace, pray ... applaud, bless, humiliate, mock, reconcile, advise, exhalt, welcome, rejoice, lament; show sadness, grieve, despair; astonish, cry out, keep silent and what not else, with a variety and multiplicity rivalling the tongue." –Michel de Montaigne//===

The hand's complex skeletal and muscular structure makes it an extremely challenging and nuanced subject for life drawing. That complexity results in an almost infinite variety of gestures. "Gestures are the speech of hands," observes Ladd ( p. 1). In gesture, the hand may, according to Bridgman, "reveal what the face would conceal … responding unconsciously to the mental states" (p. 218).



Pierre-Auguste Rodin's sculptures of the hand are perfect examples of how the hand, even separate from the face and body, reveals emotion. Rodin was fascinated by the expressive qualities of hands. "There are among the works of Rodin," wrote poet Rainer Maria Rilke, "hands, single, small hands which, without belonging to a body, are alive. Hands that rise, irritated and in wrath; hands whose five bristling fingers seem to bark like the five jaws of a dog of Hell. Hands that walk, sleeping hands, and hands that are awaking ... and hands that are tired and will do no more" (p. 39-40).





As Bridgman observes, "the hand as drawn and sculptured has varied markedly in different ages" (p. 215). In the art classroom, Rodin's sculptured hands may be used to illustrate the general style of art called //expressionism//. Leonardo's exquisite in his sketchbooks are examples of //realism//, and Keith Haring's bold, simplifed acrylic painting Untitled (for Cy Twombly) (1988) illustrates //abstraction// (Katter and Stewart, p. 12). To reinforce the physical-emotional connection, learners may be asked to imitate various images of hands, and to think about the resulting feeling the gesture triggers, or about the message that might be conveyed (Katter and Stewart, p. 10).

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