14.9.84 (a J. C.), 1984

The print consists of two sheets of the same size printed in lithograph and overlapping one another. The sheet of blank paper reproduces the photograph of an open hand, associated with several torn fragments of a reproduction of the sky, as if it were trying to hold on to them. The sheet of tracing paper features a life-size reproduction of the author's hands, inscribed in a rectangle: the left hand offsets the photographic hand, in a similar gesture, while the right hand is busy drawing. In the central area, in the area corresponding to the fragments of the sky in the lithograph beneath, the numbers 1, 4, 9, 8, 4, in autograph calligraphy, recall the date referred to in the title, 14 September 1984, the opening day of a group exhibition organized by the Städtisches Museum of Mönchengladbach in tribute to its founder and director Johannes Cladders (recalled by the initials “J. C.”), on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary.
The hand that draws and the hand that tries to stop the disaggregation of the elements disarranged among themselves, in extreme synthesis, represent the challenge that the author renews each time from scratch when faced with the blank sheet or the primed canvas. The search for a point of equilibrium, in which all the parts are arranged in a complete image – the sky alludes to an ideal dimension – is the itinerary that the author cannot forgo, even though he is aware of that arrival is unlikely.
The same iconographic theme can be found in an original variant on paper – without the numbers or the reference to Cladders – made in 1985 (GPC-0671).