Human body
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Mael dans le jardin
Samuel Perche
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2.6 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1 inch
$3,146
Desnudas en el sofá
Jordi Turbau
Painting - 81 x 101.6 x 3 cm Painting - 31.9 x 40 x 1.2 inch
$2,922
Dos hermanas y una amiga
Jordi Turbau
Painting - 73 x 92 x 3 cm Painting - 28.7 x 36.2 x 1.2 inch
$2,472
Nike, Louvre, Selfportrait.
Chiara Mazzocchi
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$556
Toute une vie
Emmanuelle Vroelant
Painting - 70 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,124
Para Celso
Enrique Grau
Fine Art Drawings - 58.4 x 45.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23 x 18 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Love story
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 55 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 21.7 x 0.4 inch
$584
Graceful Dualité
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Painting - 70 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,809
Step by step
Luis Miguel Aparisi
Painting - 190.5 x 111.8 x 1.5 cm Painting - 75 x 44 x 0.6 inch
$7,190
Synthèse du jeune torse
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 28 x 8.5 x 8.5 cm Sculpture - 11 x 3.3 x 3.3 inch
$921
I've got the power (étude II)
Patricia Dubois
Painting - 29 x 46 x 3.5 cm Painting - 11.4 x 18.1 x 1.4 inch
$512
En brazos de Coatlicue
Rosalía Banet
Painting - 73 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 28.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$3,300
Nu Homme Grand Bronze
Martín Duque
Sculpture - 31.5 x 37 x 27.5 cm Sculpture - 12.4 x 14.6 x 10.8 inch
$1,674
La trouille au ventre
Denis Blondel
Painting - 81 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.9 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,393
Distanciation physique #1
Denis Blondel
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,674
La galette des rois
Denis Blondel
Painting - 81 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 31.9 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,472
Impossible behaviour - 12
Galya Popova
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,798
Mavka and the Woodland Fairy: Enchanted Garden, Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$506
Wandering the Planet, Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$506
Nu groupé grand feu rouge
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 31.5 x 33 x 17 cm Sculpture - 12.4 x 13 x 6.7 inch
$1,562
Reconfiguración del sentido
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 46 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 18.1 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
$2,247
Something About Temptation
Artur Soletskyi
Painting - 150 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$5,618
Me and my Shadows
Artur Soletskyi
Painting - 109 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 42.9 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$4,495
Pipe inspection
Artur Soletskyi
Painting - 150 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$5,618
Sekitori : an crimson silent strength
Ryoko Watanabe
Sculpture - 150 x 180 x 50 cm Sculpture - 59.1 x 70.9 x 19.7 inch
$35,958
Erotic dream. Domination
Genia Sheyn
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,427
Femme Nu Grand II
Martín Duque
Sculpture - 36.5 x 49.5 x 29 cm Sculpture - 14.4 x 19.5 x 11.4 inch
$1,674
L'escrimeur du ciel
Eva Czaplicki
Sculpture - 75 x 32 x 36 cm Sculpture - 29.5 x 12.6 x 14.2 inch
$5,057
Sans Titre
Jean-François Spricigo
Photography - 22 x 57 x 1 cm Photography - 8.7 x 22.4 x 0.4 inch
$3,146
Nu assis et citron au temps frais
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 45 x 40 x 1 cm Painting - 17.7 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$551
Nu debout au temps frais
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 43 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 16.9 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$549
Leur amour dura le temps d’une paire de lacets
Pierre Alechinsky
Print - 49 x 57 cm Print - 19.3 x 22.4 inch
$787
On est prié de tenir les siens en liesse
Pierre Alechinsky
Print - 49 x 57 cm Print - 19.3 x 22.4 inch
$787
Les yeux infatigables de la stripteaseuse
Pierre Alechinsky
Print - 49 x 57 cm Print - 19.3 x 22.4 inch
$787
Le ravissant débordement de ses lèvres
Pierre Alechinsky
Print - 49 x 57 cm Print - 19.3 x 22.4 inch
$787
The Sleeping Universe, Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 30 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 11.8 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
$393
Béton palavasien n°1
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$506
Minnie Mello Klein Gold
Anna Kara
Sculpture - 78 x 22 x 27 cm Sculpture - 30.7 x 8.7 x 10.6 inch
$8,428
Etudes de nus II
Pierre Sojo
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$506
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.