Human body
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Les demoiselles retrouvées Bleue
Olivier Masmonteil
Print - 65 x 50 cm Print - 25.6 x 19.7 inch
$359
Totale vergave (Total surrender)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 18 x 26 x 22 cm Sculpture - 7.1 x 10.2 x 8.7 inch
$3,927
Overgave (Surrender)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 20 x 27 x 20 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 10.6 x 7.9 inch
$3,927
Dancing with my Handbag
Manny Woodard
Sculpture - 20 x 14 x 8 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 5.5 x 3.1 inch
$654
Girl and roses IIII
Cécile Duchêne-Malissin
Painting - 65 x 54 x 4 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1.6 inch
$1,043
Nu 31
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$898
Nu 30
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$898
Parcours Desnos, Louise Lame, étude 2
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 31 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 12.2 inch
$22,438
Lingerie 1 - The womb
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 20 x 27 x 0.5 cm Painting - 7.9 x 10.6 x 0.2 inch
$960
Anvers
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 63 x 38 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24.8 x 15 inch
$22,438
La desnudez del multiverso
Josep Garcia Marsal
Painting - 61 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
$1,683
Nude woman naive modern art - Warrior
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 75 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 29.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,515
Marine Delterme
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$1,346
Two hearts
Mino Maccari
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 16 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 6.3 x 0.1 inch
$763
Roi singe, maquette
Christophe Charbonnel
Sculpture - 57 x 15 x 15 cm Sculpture - 22.4 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch
$16,828
Recourber l'échine
Emilie Teillaud
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$954
Template Reboot 11
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,019
Template Reboot 9
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,019
Template Reboot 8
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,019
Template Reboot 7
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,019
Template Reboot 6
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,019
Sans titre 23
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 30 x 46 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 18.1 x 0.4 inch
$1,458
Homme nu sur la plage
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,122
Coup de tête
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 37 x 37 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 14.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,234
Sans titre 8
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 60 x 90 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,346
Sans titre 6
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 60 x 90 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,346
Sans titre 2
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 60 x 90 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,346
Moonlight, Figurative neon painting
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$2,019
The Small Hercule
Maxime Davoust
Sculpture - 38 x 15.5 x 14.5 cm Sculpture - 15 x 6.1 x 5.7 inch
$1,234
Angelique
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 61 x 91 x 0.1 cm Photography - 24 x 35.8 x 0 inch
$1,655
Study for a Portrait of the Burlesque Queen II
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 116 x 73 cm Painting - 45.7 x 28.7 inch
$7,180
No57 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91.4 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 36 x 0.1 inch
$1,655
Marche des Méréides
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91 x 68 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.8 x 26.8 x 0 inch
$1,655
Danseuse n°1
Christophe Beaufront (Rodolph)
Sculpture - 76 x 25 x 15 cm Sculpture - 29.9 x 9.8 x 5.9 inch
$1,346
Apesanteur - série Femmes
Christophe Beaufront (Rodolph)
Sculpture - 46 x 26 x 26 cm Sculpture - 18.1 x 10.2 x 10.2 inch
$1,616
Femme offerte, Monsieur curieux
Jean-Pierre Ceytaire
Painting - 48 x 98.5 x 4 cm Painting - 18.9 x 38.8 x 1.6 inch
$6,619
Sculpture de Vénus
Natalie Shiporina
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,683
Nitrogen Explosion
Danylo Movchan
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 35 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 13.8 x 0 inch
$449
Human body
'I wanted to conquer the world. But I also desperately wanted to understand human nature, and to know what was inside our bodies. To do this, I have spent whole night dissecting bodies, against the direct orders of the Pope. Nothing disgusts me. What I am looking for, truly, in all of my work and particularly in my painting, what I have looked for all my life, is to understand the mystery that is human nature' – from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century.
At the time of writing these notes, da Vinci had already made greater understanding of the human body the primary objective of his investigations. Dissection and study were key to his development of a holistic knowledge of anatomy, which da Vinci believed was vital to the perfect rendering of the nude figures which he painted and drew.
Little by little, the traditional image of the human figure was uprooted and in its place new ways of interpreting the body developed. Contemporary artists relentlessly questioned the traditional codes of figure drawing, liberally reworking the representation of the body to create a new image that was dislocated, geometric, deformed and disfigured.
The body as an artistic subject is at once desired, fantasised, dreamt, transformed, deformed. For painters, photographers and sculptors alike the body represents a rite of passage in their artistic development. Many people say that they most appreciate the talents of an artists by way of their control over the complexity of the figure. For example, it's clear even in Matisse's later, more abstract collages that he had perfectly mastered the human form.
Representation of the body is fundamental to Western art: first and foremost because it suggests a representation of the self, and therefore affirms the artist's own existence and coexistence with the environment that surrounds them. At the beginning of art history, the only bodies represented were the gods, supernatural beings, and spirits who had taken on human form. The body, nude or clothed, is at once one of the most widely depicted and most deeply polemical subjects in Western art (think of the scandals provoked by Courbet's 'Origins of the World', or Renoir's 'Picnic on the Grass').
The body has always been the primary subject of an array of themes, and its history is rich and ancient. Initially, depiction of the body was closely linked to religion, where the Word became flesh in Genesis, but later in more secular times the arousal of the artist when faced with the body made for an equally popular theme. Latterly the notion of the body as an object of beauty was subverted by Cubism until depictions of bodies no longer bore any resemblance to reality or made any pretence of respecting the rules of proportion.
Finally, in modern art the body has taken on an abstract shape within space, becoming one with the environment. In some instances, the body has become the artist's own support, as with Klein's models. The body as an abstract concept is tangible in many different manifestations in art, even in pieces as unassuming as some of Rothko's paintings. It remains the subject of inexhaustible inspiration and eternal debate.