Human body
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Canzone Napoletana
Alexander Levich
Painting - 120 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$4,824
Les trois belles
Victorine Follana
Painting - 81 x 65 x 4 cm Painting - 31.9 x 25.6 x 1.6 inch
$2,468
On the old quay
Zhivko Mutafchiev
Painting - 95 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 37.4 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$2,805
Semeuse
Marie Labat
Fine Art Drawings - 160 x 100 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 63 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,234
The Ides of March (Diptych), n.d. Large
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 inch
$12,000
Sans titre
Imam Sucahyo
Fine Art Drawings - 19.4 x 24.8 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.6 x 9.8 inch
$1,122
Mari Kita Ke Sana
Imam Sucahyo
Fine Art Drawings - 30.2 x 50.6 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.9 x 19.9 inch
$617
Vanité tatouée - bleue
Philippe Pasqua
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$12,341
Contemporary Beauty
Matteo Nannini
Painting - 120 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$4,936
Marx (bubble wrap)
Brandon Vickerd
Sculpture - 61 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm Sculpture - 24 x 12 x 12 inch
$29,169
The flow of the love
Michaela Skuhrava
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$6,581
California IV
Clara Delaporte
Photography - 40 x 60 x 4 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
$1,122
Thierry Dusautoir
Clément Poitrenaud
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$4,488
How does it feel to be famous Mr. Van Gogh?
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 91 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 35.8 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$4,375
I'm going to be a pilot
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$4,824
Soir de première
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 47 x 30 x 30 cm Sculpture - 18.5 x 11.8 x 11.8 inch
$1,739
Cellule de degrisement
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 37 x 46 x 3 cm Painting - 14.6 x 18.1 x 1.2 inch
$337
The inmate and the Black Virgin
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 61 x 31 x 3 cm Painting - 24 x 12.2 x 1.2 inch
$505
Untitled 5
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 27 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 10.6 x 0.6 inch
$600
Homo Faber (The creator)
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 91 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 35.8 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$5,049
Back lighting, Blue and Green. Diptych
Dora Franco
Photography - 76.2 x 203.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 30 x 80 x 0.1 inch
$5,000
Green Lantern
Benjamin Olatunji
Painting - 152.4 x 121.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 60 x 48 x 1 inch
$6,000
Divas, champagne and bla bla bla #4
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
Blue Monday
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
Call of Duty
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 40 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,402
The last dance
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Painting - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,290
Sans titre #1, Série Qohelet
Dan Barichasse
Painting - 60 x 50 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 inch
$4,824
Avant le combat III
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 49 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 19.3 x 0 inch
$335
Sous la couette
Alexandre Mijatovic
Sculpture - 15 x 35 x 27 cm Sculpture - 5.9 x 13.8 x 10.6 inch
$6,731
Equilibriste
Alexandre Mijatovic
Sculpture - 48 x 25 x 32 cm Sculpture - 18.9 x 9.8 x 12.6 inch
$5,722
Comment pleurent les hommes
Alexandre Mijatovic
Sculpture - 50 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$6,731
Barca de Refugiados
Celso Castro
Painting - 114.3 x 149.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 45 x 59 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Faces
Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska
Sculpture - 50 x 63 x 63 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 24.8 x 24.8 inch
$4,375
Arara III - Guacamaya. Cultura Kayapó, Brasil
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 120 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0 inch
$7,629
Arara II - Guacamaya. Cultura Kayapó, Brasil
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 120 x 144 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 56.7 x 0 inch
$7,629
Arara - Guacamaya. Cultura Kayapó, Brasil
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 120 x 144 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 56.7 x 0 inch
$7,629
Makunaima - Aprendiz de chamán. Cultura Pemón, Venezuela
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 70 x 200 x 0.1 cm Photography - 27.6 x 78.7 x 0 inch
$7,629
À moitié là
Guillaume Chevallard
Photography - 70 x 50 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,346
Le sorcier
Geneviève Seillé
Fine Art Drawings - 130 x 74 cm Fine Art Drawings - 51.2 x 29.1 inch
$4,375
Still Life with a Metal Torso, Paris
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 152.4 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$7,000
Le Folding' à l'amble flottant
Bruno Mallart
Fine Art Drawings - 102 x 181 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 40.2 x 71.3 x 1.6 inch
$15,707
Cast 2 (Muse)
Ajegbomogun Damilola
Painting - 135.1 x 124 x 2.5 cm Painting - 53.2 x 48.8 x 1 inch
$4,400
Le Baiser dans les jonquilles - Tribute to Brancusi - Abstrait nu N°16
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$769
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.