Human body
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Portrait PS 126 Kiev - De guerre lasse - French school
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 70 x 50 x 3.8 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.5 inch
£1,438 £1,179
Il est mien #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
£674
Spotty face beauty
Faie Davis
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£780
Karo people from Ethiopia
Faie Davis
Photography - 30 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£835
Unfathomable Depth 1
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 116 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 45.7 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
£1,078
Let there be light !
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1 inch
£809
Red Cube
Shota Imerlishvili
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£1,797
Procession - série personnages en marche bronze
Mireille Bassier-Tilmont
Sculpture - 23 x 34 x 10 cm Sculpture - 9.1 x 13.4 x 3.9 inch
£539
What's hidden
Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska
Sculpture - 28 x 22 x 17 cm Sculpture - 11 x 8.7 x 6.7 inch
£1,617
Taali, série silhouette de femme
Mireille Bassier-Tilmont
Sculpture - 40 x 22 x 6 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 8.7 x 2.4 inch
£2,336
Anamorphose - série corps humain
Anne-Marie Renno
Painting - 60 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£404
Liberty (small)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 59.4 x 40.32 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.4 x 15.9 x 0.1 inch
£629
Sans titre, ni mots, ni voix
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 74 x 93 x 2 cm Painting - 29.1 x 36.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,752
Brûler dans tes yeux
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£764
Girl in an orange dress
Marlena Nizio
Painting - 85 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 33.5 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
£494
Résonnance - water drop 84 (Large)
Seb Janiak
Photography - 160 x 160 cm Photography - 63 x 63 inch
£6,500
Résonance - water drop 84 Medium
Seb Janiak
Photography - 110 x 110 cm Photography - 43.3 x 43.3 inch
£4,400
Morphogenetic field - AB negative blood
Seb Janiak
Photography - 110 x 110 cm Photography - 43.3 x 43.3 inch
£4,400
Anxious portrait
Rebecca Yunjeong Lee
Painting - 73 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
£1,864
Blued Lightness
Nino Eliashvili
Fine Art Drawings - 55.5 x 47 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 21.9 x 18.5 x 0 inch
£1,438
SJWMN//JP#09 (Still just writing my name // Japan)
Patrick Hartl
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,438
Like diamonds shining (Identity Testimonies Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£764
Fire Escapes, New York City
David Supper
Painting - 119.4 x 119.4 x 2 cm Painting - 47 x 47 x 0.8 inch
£1,592
The ballet angel
Serghei Ghetiu
Painting - 80 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,348 £1,011
Fashion Sea Horse
Gouzy
Fine Art Drawings - 39 x 29 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.4 x 11.4 x 0.4 inch
£494 £445
Rebond 120
Daniel Perreu
Sculpture - 116.3 x 89.7 x 4.2 cm Sculpture - 45.8 x 35.3 x 1.7 inch
£4,385
L'attente 180
Daniel Perreu
Sculpture - 174.5 x 24.7 x 2 cm Sculpture - 68.7 x 9.7 x 0.8 inch
£3,424
Souplesse 150
Daniel Perreu
Sculpture - 155.5 x 73 x 4.4 cm Sculpture - 61.2 x 28.7 x 1.7 inch
£5,652
Eretz
Nathan Chantob
Fine Art Drawings - 236 x 110 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 92.9 x 43.3 x 0.4 inch
£19,769
Pensamientos
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 120 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
£1,258
A strong man – Uncle II
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 275 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 108.3 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
£860 £774
A strong man – Uncle I
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 270 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 106.3 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
£860
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.