Human body
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ARIKA5 : VERDANT TEMPTATION IN KAWAII WHISPERS
Aya Toshikawa
Painting - 50 x 50 x 5 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$1,887
La signora - The shades of gray version
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Painting - 76 x 55 x 1 cm Painting - 29.9 x 21.7 x 0.4 inch
$943
Breathe in Breathe out
Lesya Rozova
Photography - 90 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$749
NUDE ONLY FOR YOU 2
Oswin Gesselli
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$3,274
Gone with the Wind
Lesya Rozova
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$749
Doux au toucher
David Djian
Photography - 200 x 133.33 x 0.2 cm Photography - 78.7 x 52.5 x 0.1 inch
$3,274
Série des Pin Up N°3
Mehdi Mirbagheri
Photography - 80 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,775
Echoes of time: The bridge between worlds
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 40 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 15.7 x 0.7 inch
$832
The cycle of being: Motherhood through the ages
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 60 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$755
Romances muettes (Album complet)
Olivier O. Olivier
Print - 65 x 47 cm Print - 25.6 x 18.5 inch
$1,776
Udo could have been a woman like the others
Udo Roosen
Photography - 60 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,332
Fate and its inevitable consequences
Akif Hakan
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$610
Tokyo 99, YUKI
André Ferrand
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 65 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$999
Confident stance
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 60.5 x 45.2 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.8 x 17.8 x 0.1 inch
$550
H2 Eau
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 117 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 46.1 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$2,775
Corps rouge 1
Jean-Philippe Escafre
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$2,220
Corps rouge 2
Jean-Philippe Escafre
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,220
La danseuse
Merry Kerpitchian (Merry K)
Sculpture - 15 x 31 x 11 cm Sculpture - 5.9 x 12.2 x 4.3 inch
$4,162
Le lac
Olena Siniuhina
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 25 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 9.8 x 0.2 inch
$133
Yanna au coquillage
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 100 x 31 x 21 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 12.2 x 8.3 inch
$16,650
Trois mouvements d’Ailine III
Yiyan Zhou
Sculpture - 18 x 13 x 8 cm Sculpture - 7.1 x 5.1 x 3.1 inch
$2,442
Trois mouvements d’Ailine II
Yiyan Zhou
Sculpture - 21 x 14 x 9 cm Sculpture - 8.3 x 5.5 x 3.5 inch
$2,442
Ecstatic Nudes Gold
Julia Hariri
Painting - 120 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$6,681
Stop and focus
Emmanuel Okoro
Sculpture - 95 x 110 x 20 cm Sculpture - 37.4 x 43.3 x 7.9 inch
$5,404
Good company
Jessica Renault jrbrush
Painting - 20.3 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Painting - 8 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$888
Irida XIII
Laurence Winram
Photography - 84.1 x 59.4 x 0.2 cm Photography - 33.1 x 23.4 x 0.1 inch
$618
Roarie XXVI
Laurence Winram
Photography - 84.1 x 59.4 x 0.2 cm Photography - 33.1 x 23.4 x 0.1 inch
$618
Marianne à la Rose 1/8
Marcos Rodrigo
Sculpture - 67.5 x 29 x 19 cm Sculpture - 26.6 x 11.4 x 7.5 inch
$2,941
Les colonnes n°2
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$555 $499
Variations sur béton n°1
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$555
Relaxing nude figure (Diptych)
Carmen Tyrrell
Painting - 39.9 x 102.1 x 1.5 cm Painting - 15.7 x 40.2 x 0.6 inch
$720
Erotic female nude 2
Carmen Tyrrell
Painting - 52.1 x 89.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 20.5 x 35.4 x 0.1 inch
$812
Erotic female nude 3
Carmen Tyrrell
Painting - 52.1 x 89.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 20.5 x 35.4 x 0.1 inch
$812
Lovers - Pure love 4
Carmen Tyrrell
Painting - 63 x 51.1 x 0.3 cm Painting - 24.8 x 20.1 x 0.1 inch
$720
Sin título (Identity Assertions Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Photography - 20 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$666
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.