Arnulf Rainer Schwarze Hand, 1981

The Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer is regarded as a pioneer of Art Informel, a movement which brought an intuitive form of lyrical expression into the field of abstraction. Schwarze Hand (1981) is part of an extensive series of Hand and Finger Paintings, which the artist began in 1979. Here, the strong black diagonals bear the distinct imprints of the artist’s fingers in the paint, which remain as an index of his movements. Colour is formed directly by hand on the canvas, conveying the intensity, ferocity and, at times, the delicacy of his touch. ‘In my body-generated painting,’ wrote Rainer, ‘my interests have turned away from all qualities of colour and composition in favour of the unexplored possibilities of direct application of strokes and colours by means of the artist’s body.’