Human body
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H0404 - The insurgent
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$1,342
Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 90 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$5,814
Marilyn jewels down the back
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 inch
$2,784
I am fleeting #13. From I am fleeting Series
Javier Rey
Photography - 73 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 28.7 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,450
L’homme qui fuit devant ses désirs - Sculpture bronze
Plaf
Sculpture - 17 x 6 x 8.5 cm Sculpture - 6.7 x 2.4 x 3.3 inch
$1,677
Annonciation en rose
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 80 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
$950
Guardian of the Enchanted Grove
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 90 x 85 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 33.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,012
Cristal
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 97 x 16 x 16 cm Sculpture - 38.2 x 6.3 x 6.3 inch
$1,621
Dancing in the Dark
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
$7,155
Figures in a Landscape
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 90 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$6,954
N° 789 Ne pas savoir
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 57 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 22.4 x 0.1 inch
$201
N° 747 Julie se défilant.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 62 x 47 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24.4 x 18.5 x 0.1 inch
$201
N° 719 Danseuse au repos.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 48 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 18.9 x 0.1 inch
$179
N° 825 La belle personne 2.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 65 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 25.6 x 0.1 inch
$224
A set of 3 Polaroids from the Do it Yourself Series
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 10.1 x 7.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 4 x 3 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
My Chamber 2
Rebecca Yunjeong Lee
Painting - 33.5 x 45.5 x 2.5 cm Painting - 13.2 x 17.9 x 1 inch
$1,100
Marilyn 1962 (New baby in Gold)
Bert Stern
Photography - 33 x 48 x 1 cm Photography - 13 x 18.9 x 0.4 inch
$5,478
Ho il collo stupito
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 73.2 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 28.8 x 0.1 inch
$984
Marilyn red classic full roses Glitters
Bert Stern
Photography - 43 x 30 cm Photography - 16.9 x 11.8 inch
$5,478
Marilyn. Jeweled Toga
Bert Stern
Photography - 45 x 31 x 1 cm Photography - 17.7 x 12.2 x 0.4 inch
$5,478
Girl and roses IIII
Cécile Duchêne-Malissin
Painting - 65 x 54 x 4 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1.6 inch
$1,040
Marilyn Red Classic Charcoal Roses
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 inch
$5,478
Marilyn Black silver wink roses
Bert Stern
Photography - 43 x 31 cm Photography - 16.9 x 12.2 inch
$5,478
Etude pour les arbrorigènes
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 29 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.4 x 0 inch
$15,093
Etude pour les Arbrorigènes
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 29 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.4 inch
$15,093
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.