Touch is our first sense. Through touch we make art, stake a claim to what we own and those we love, express our faith, our belief, our anger. Touch is how we leave our mark and find our place in the world; touch is how we connect. Drawing on works of art spanning four thousand years and from across the globe, this book explores the fundamental role of touch in human experience, and offers new ways of looking. In a series of lavishly illustrated essays, the authors explore anatomy and skin; the relationship between the brain, hand, and creativity; touch, desire and possession; ideological touch; reverence and iconoclasm. A final section collects a range of reflections, historic and contemporary, on touch. Objects range from anonymous ancient Egyptian limestone sculpture, to medieval manuscripts and panel paintings, to devotional and spiritual objects from across the world, to love tokens and fede rings. Drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture by Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Carracci, Hogarth, Turner, Rodin, Degas, and Kollwitz are explored, along with work by contemporary artists Judy Chicago, Frank Auerbach, Richard Long, the Chapman Brothers, and Richard Rawlins. The events of 2020 have made us newly alive to the preciousness and the dangers of touch, making this exploration of our most fundamental sense particularly timely and resonant.

About the Author
Elenor Ling is curator of paintings, drawings, and prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge. Suzanne Reynolds is curator of manuscripts and printed books at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Jane Munro is keeper of paintings, drawings, and prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Reviews
...'The Human Touch' is a melancholy triumph. * Apollo 02/06/2021 *
A timely exhibition showcasing objects that explore touch - across millennia and in all its associations - is accompanied by a publication that reminds us just how important a sense it is... * Art Quarterly 12/05/2021 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781913645052
Author Elenor Ling
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Paul Holberton Publishing Ltd
Publisher Paul Holberton Publishing Ltd