Human body
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But you can't kill me
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 116 x 73 x 2.5 cm Painting - 45.7 x 28.7 x 1 inch
$1,332
Poésie 29
Yanne Kintgen
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 20 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,387
Corazon y alma
James Sparshatt
Photography - 40 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$771
Monica et Sophia
Herve Malcom Thomas
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.8 inch
$2,053
Nianga, le mouton habillé en Louis Vuitton et sa friperie
Enfant Précoce / Francis Essoua Kalu
Painting - 260 x 210 x 3 cm Painting - 102.4 x 82.7 x 1.2 inch
$26,007
Cloned Polar Bear with pet bottle
William Sweetlove
Sculpture - 40 x 26 x 21 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 10.2 x 8.3 inch
$5,550
Qu’a-t-on fait
Michèle Magnien (Mileg)
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$832
Code champêtre
László Mester de Parajd
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$1,776
ASUKA1 : ETHEREAL ALLURE ON A WHISPERING GREEN CANVAS
Aya Toshikawa
Painting - 130 x 97 x 5 cm Painting - 51.2 x 38.2 x 2 inch
$5,550
Mujer, jaca y la luna
Eulogia Merle
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,664
Waiting for the rain in Wamba
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,994
At the edge of the Jade Sea
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,222
Afar woman of Assaita
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,526
Hanging by a thread
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$555
Fast Atoms Escape II
Russell Frampton
Painting - 91 x 91 x 2 cm Painting - 35.8 x 35.8 x 0.8 inch
$4,696
Women series II
Maral Djenazian
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,698
Le Blanc et le Banc
Caroline de Piédoüe
Painting - 60 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,332
Fond Marin (Réf.69)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
$3,108
Homme sous la lampe
Pascal Marlin
Painting - 100 x 81 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1 inch
$2,220
Les mots n'ont plus de bouche
Valerio Adami
Print - 31 x 28.5 x 0.05 cm Print - 12.2 x 11.2 x 0 inch
$333
Maria
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$832
Anatomy: Class VII
Dominik Jasinski
Painting - 100 x 50 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 1 inch
$3,108
Vesna
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 96 x 18 x 18 cm Sculpture - 37.8 x 7.1 x 7.1 inch
$1,554
Le nouveau règne
Yoann Merienne
Sculpture - 93 x 70 x 42 cm Sculpture - 36.6 x 27.6 x 16.5 inch
$24,419
Manufactura 9
Oriol Texidor
Photography - 40 x 50 x 7 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 2.8 inch
$1,399
Desvelando Gaudí 015
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$444
Torse Épigastrique (Opus 377)
Miguel Berrocal
Sculpture - 15 x 7 x 5 cm Sculpture - 5.9 x 2.8 x 2 inch
$1,998
Après l'expo
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$832
L'Offrande et la pierre plate
Réjane LeChat
Sculpture - 45 x 9 x 14 cm Sculpture - 17.7 x 3.5 x 5.5 inch
$1,998
The Pictorial Cabinet of Marvels
Adele Moreau
Sculpture - 25 x 18 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 7.1 inch
$965
Summertime
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,220
Invitation au voyage
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 73 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
$1,082
Le retour des beaux jours
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 65 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$888
Les fiancés de la mer rouge
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$666
Printemps précoce
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 81 x 65 x 1 cm Painting - 31.9 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,387
Faya, premiers rayons pour Martin
Michaël Fok Bor
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$1,998
Les mots n'ont plus de bouche
Valerio Adami
Print - 31 x 57 x 0.05 cm Print - 12.2 x 22.4 x 0 inch
$388
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.