The Human Touch

Making Art | Leaving Traces

Whose hands?

Keith Vaughan claimed that he made this drawing after watching a soldier and a woman seated together. The reduced, anonymous detail of two lovers is an interesting choice for a gay artist at this time, obliged to think secretively about romantic touch. Homosexual acts between men were illegal in the UK until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.

Keith Vaughan (1912–1977)
Study of Hands
1944
Pen, Indian ink, grey-brown wash, black chalk and wax crayon, on paper
Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1966
PD.54-1966

© Estate of Keith Vaughan. DACS, 2020 - All Rights Reserved

Section: Four

Whose hands?

Selected objects from this section

Manhandled
Manhandled
Customised
Customised
Whose hands?
Whose hands?
Trusting hands
Trusting hands
Fragment from the coffin of Wepwawetemhat: The Fitzwillam Museum
Making Art, Leaving Traces
Engraving of dissected hand: The Syndics of Cambridge University Library
Anatomy of Touch
The photograph of Frank Auerbach’s hand: Katrin Bellinger Collection. © Nicola Bensley
Hands at Work
A gimmel ring with fede motif: Fitzwillam Museum
Taking Hold
Avalokitesvara: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
The Power of Touch
Jesus before Pilate: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Revere/Destroy
Grande main crispée (Mighty hand): Private Collection
The Power in your Hands
Carmen's Inspiration Figurine. Clay Execration Figure. Production Egypt. Find Spotproduction Place Egypt. Length 12cm, Circa 2160 To Circa 1650 B.c. First Intermediate Period Middle Kingdom.
Carmen Mariscal
Giacomo Bufarini Run With His Mural My Many Hands (2020) © Nelly Duff 2021
Giacomo Bufarini aka RUN
Richard Mark Rawlins
Richard Mark Rawlins
Fitzwilliam Museum
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