Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Curves #47
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,674
Untitled IX
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 78.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 30.81 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Untitled VIII
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 73.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 28.9 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Untitled VII
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 58.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 23.19 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Untitled V
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 74.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 29.5 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Petite femme enceinte 1
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 17 x 14 x 9 cm Sculpture - 6.7 x 5.5 x 3.5 inch
$435
The journey within
Ifigenia Christodoulidou
Painting - 78.7 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 31 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$3,700
The Shield of Heracles
Derek Overfield
Painting - 139.7 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 55 x 60 x 2 inch
$2,045
The Madness of Heracles
Derek Overfield
Painting - 139.7 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 55 x 60 x 2 inch
$2,045
Hercules breaking the bonds of Prometheus II
Derek Overfield
Painting - 139.7 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 55 x 60 x 2 inch
$2,045
Sleep embracing a man
Derek Overfield
Painting - 139.7 x 109.2 x 5.1 cm Painting - 55 x 43 x 2 inch
$1,540
Allez voir ailleurs
Gatien Mabounga
Fine Art Drawings - 66 x 133 cm Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 52.4 inch
$2,121
Mujer vestida mujer desnuda
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 90 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,451
#7 From La Piedra Sustituta II Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 61.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 24.2 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#21 From Un niño en el Chicle Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 66.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#17 From El envuelto Divino Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 70.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.9 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#16 From El envuelto Divino Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 71.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 28.1 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#15 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 70.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.7 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#12 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 66 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#6. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 65.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 25.7 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#5. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 69.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.4 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#3. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 59.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
La Coquette
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$876
Autoportrait au loup
Pierre Molinier
Photography - 11 x 6.3 x 0.1 cm Photography - 4.3 x 2.5 x 0 inch
$2,009
Bedroom blonde doodle with photo
Tom Wesselmann
Print - 61.875 x 71.5 x 2 cm Print - 24.4 x 28.1 x 0.8 inch
$42,500
El fauno de la rafia / The faun of the Raffia Palm
Luis Prada
Painting - 60 x 90 cm Painting - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
$1,786
Man catching and throwing a ball
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 92 x 73 x 3 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 1.2 inch
$6,586
Man throwing a ball
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 92 x 73 x 3 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 1.2 inch
$6,586
Untitled
Guy Ghazanchyan
Sculpture - 90 x 59 x 40 cm Sculpture - 35.4 x 23.2 x 15.7 inch
$6,586 $5,598
Woman nude, Pop art - Antifragile
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,005
Eso que tú me das
Carol Tomàs Alcaine
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
$1,674
Cuesta levantarse cuando a tu alrededor sólo hay miedo y destrucción
Carol Tomàs Alcaine
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
$2,233
Obra teatral Antigonon, un contingente épico. Teatro El Público. Cuba
Sonia Almaguer
Photography - 24 x 32 x 2 cm Photography - 9.4 x 12.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,340
The Essence of Life 010
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 90 x 60 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 inch
$893
Euphoria
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$2,925
Résilience - Prise de conscience et spiritualité - série Collages
Karine Barbier (dite Ka Bé)
Print - 80 x 60 x 0.2 cm Print - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,540
Nu
Marcel Gromaire
Fine Art Drawings - 64.5 x 49.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.4 x 19.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,233
Woman on the balcony
Jacek Cyganek
Painting - 80 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,116
Les passants
Claire Bonnet-Masimbert
Sculpture - 70 x 24 x 24 cm Sculpture - 27.6 x 9.4 x 9.4 inch
$893
Bill, South Beach
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Francisco Castillo, Lotero
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Andrés, Verdugo
Celso Castro
Photography - 50.8 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Norberto con Trombón
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Luis Carlos de oso.
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
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.