Hands on Blue Background alludes to the human figure by focusing on one specific body part: the hand. An artist’s hands are instruments used to guide the paintbrush, pencil, or crayon, and appear in Rufino Tamayo’s work throughout his career. Here, they look as if Tamayo pressed them directly on to the surface of the paper, referencing the basic ideas of printmaking in which one surface is inked in order to transfer its image to another. The smears of ink suggest the creative power of the hands themselves.