MAIN COUCHÉE – RECLINING HAND
1937
Medium : Iron and cut iron slabs, bent, pipes, bars, welded
Dimensions : 19 x 29,5 x 2,7 cm
Reclining Hand, 1937, cut and bent iron and iron sheet metal, welded tubes and bars
Main couchée (Reclining hand) represents an abstracted hand, transformed into a spade-shaped element pointing sideways. Four vertical pointed rods—three projecting downwards, one upwards—represent the fingers. The combination of the sharp extremity and pointed rods make the work resemble a primitive tool or even a weapon.
The human body is at the heart of González’s oeuvre throughout his career. But his attention shifts specifically to the hand starting around 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. After signaling his support for Republican Spain in 1937 with his courageous Catalan peasant mother, The Montserrat, González pursues his politically-engaged work through abstracted figures whose combativeness is conveyed through their raised hands or fists.
In other works, González hones in on the motif that incarnates their resistant spirit: an upraised hand, whose jagged edges and/or projecting spikes capture the violence of the times. Reclining hand pursues this aggressive quality, but differs in its sideways disposition. Nonetheless, it remains an expression of González’s support for his compatriots fighting to preserve freedom and democracy in Spain.
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