DANA SCHUTZ | Hand

LFL Gallery, New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above in November 2004)
Phillips, New York, 17 November 2016, Lot 114
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner  

New York, LFL Gallery, Dana Schutz: Panic, November - December 2004
Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, 48th Corcoran Biennial: Closer to Home, March - June 2005
SITE Santa Fe, Dana Schutz, September - December 2005
Waltham, Brandeis University, Rose Art Museum, Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2005, January - April 2006, p. 51, illustrated in color
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Cryptic, May - August 2011
New York, National Academy Museum & School, Annual 2014: Redefining Tradition, June - September 2014

Eleanor Heartney, "Dana Schutz at Zach Feuer (LFL)," Art in America, June/July 2005
Cate McQuaid, "Hot Tones, Cool Eye," The Boston Globe, 17 January 2006, p. 177
Denise Taylor, "Rose Art Museum Showcases a Rising Star," The Boston Globe, 26 January 2006, p. 8
Jonathan Safran Foer and Barry Schwabsky, Dana Schutz, New York 2010, pp. 68-69, illustrated in color

This work is in excellent condition overall. There is evidence of wear and handling with associated light abrasions, most noticeable near the extreme turning edges of the corners. There are areas of heavy impasto and the impasto peaks appear to be secure and intact. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Dana Schutz’s Hand from 2004 at first appears to be a straightfoward landscape painting of a forest, but upon closer inspection reveals itself as something far more complex. The artist envelops the viewer in a bizarre, yet riveting realm filled with anthropomorphic forms, much like those Salvador Dali’s Surrealist paintings. In reference to the title, a large hand dominates the center of the foreground and is flanked by two forms that simultaneously appear to be both trees and humans. These ambiguous creatures seem to be constructing the hand from their own wooden limbs, with the trees in the background contorting in a humanistic manner as if observing the spectacle in front of them. Schutz explains: “In the woods you feel like it’s a space of play where things can be rebuilt or made…[The woods] are a space where you can have a kind of continuum of abstraction and representation” (the artist quoted in David Salle, "Dana Schutz," Artforum 50, December 2011, p. 247). There is a true freedom of form in this work as distinctions between the real and the abstract are relinquished, leaving the viewer in an ambiguous and psychologically complex realm. Not only are personified trees constructing a human hand out of wood, but the entire painting also appears to have been constructed out of block-like forms, blurring the lines between the constructor and the constructed and thus leaving the work in a constant state of production. Ultimately, the figurative subject of the painting is engaged in activities that mirror the act of making the painting itself, whereby the floor of the forest is a surrogate for the canvas itself.