Human body
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"Indira with Red Hair" mounted on aluminum/plexiglass
Efren Isaza
Photography - 146.1 x 114.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 57.5 x 45 x 0.1 inch
£4,976
Rameaux (Guyana)
Alfons Alt
Photography - 100 x 100 x 5 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
£4,355
Two Bodies
Danylo Movchan
Fine Art Drawings - 35 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£355 £302
Portrait de Katarina
Sylvie Bourely
Sculpture - 27 x 19 x 20 cm Sculpture - 10.6 x 7.5 x 7.9 inch
£2,400
Si No Tuvieras Miedo
Marco Battaglini
Painting - 100 x 125 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 49.2 x 2 inch
£26,661
Lying Man
Enrique Vasi
Fine Art Drawings - 20.3 x 16 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8 x 6.3 x 0 inch
£427
Cocci-révolution bleue
Salvy de Saunhac
Sculpture - 12 x 37 x 24 cm Sculpture - 4.7 x 14.6 x 9.4 inch
£2,222
La Chambre Verte - Blossom - 2
VAM
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 7.9 x 0 inch
£311
Ali vs Patterson
Lawrence Schiller
Photography - 38 x 48 x 0.2 cm Photography - 15 x 18.9 x 0.1 inch
£2,488
Respirer
Fanny Gosse
Fine Art Drawings - 32 x 24 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12.6 x 9.4 x 0 inch
£311
Sans Titre
Émile Othon Friesz
Fine Art Drawings - 36 x 28 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14.2 x 11 x 0.1 inch
£444
Corps en ligne
Dani Olivier
Photography - 60 x 40 x 2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
£1,600
Itinérances
Franceleine Debellefontaine
Sculpture - 38 x 14.5 x 8 cm Sculpture - 15 x 5.7 x 3.1 inch
£4,266
Untitled
Enrique Grau
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 22.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 9 x 0.1 inch
£1,244
Torse en bronze coulé
José Luis Fernández
Sculpture - 31 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 12.2 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
£1,760
Daphné poursuivie par Apollon
Alain Vintenon
Painting - 56 x 71 x 4 cm Painting - 22 x 28 x 1.6 inch
£3,703
Les métamorphoses
Lorette Le Brestec
Sculpture - 65 x 50 x 15 cm Sculpture - 25.6 x 19.7 x 5.9 inch
£3,110
O último beijo (Le dernier baiser)
Renata Andrade
Sculpture - 27 x 21 x 31 cm Sculpture - 10.6 x 8.3 x 12.2 inch
£889
Emergency of beauty
Francesco Arena
Photography - 80 x 117 x 0.5 cm Photography - 31.5 x 46.1 x 0.2 inch
£3,199
Ocre - Sospita
Alexandra Sans Massó
Fine Art Drawings - 39.5 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.6 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
£267
Corps rêvé réel 1
Anne Procoudine-Gorsky
Painting - 156 x 62 x 1.5 cm Painting - 61.4 x 24.4 x 0.6 inch
£604
Yanig dans le jardin
Samuel Perche
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2.6 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1 inch
£2,488
Elévation
Frédérique Maillart
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£427
Elena Mar, odalisca en mio patio
Alberto García-Alix
Photography - 40 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£8,443
Colin Maillard
Francis Bellanger
Fine Art Drawings - 62 x 39 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24.4 x 15.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,511
The painters project - Jean-Louis Boccar
Eric Ceccarini
Photography - 160 x 106 x 1 cm Photography - 63 x 41.7 x 0.4 inch
£13,331
Mathilde
Guy Delaroque
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 50 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£622
The Red Jacket (d'après Soutine)
Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
£4,710
Vertical Composition of Sex
Jorge Carruana
Painting - 135 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 53.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
£4,266
Stranded
Miel Maloberti
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,955
Etudes de nus I
Pierre Sojo
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£400
Violetta : frosty whispers of lavender dreams
Kaho Nakamura
Painting - 140 x 159 x 5 cm Painting - 55.1 x 62.6 x 2 inch
£5,954
La descente de l'esprit ou essai clinique d'un transhumanisme à visage humain
Bernard Fièvre
Painting - 100 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£2,222
Meli Melo 2
Dominique Payen
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 30 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£311
Nude Woman
André Meaux Saint-Marc
Fine Art Drawings - 50.5 x 32.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.9 x 12.8 x 0 inch
£267
Corps ovale sur fond rouge
Changzheng Zhu
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£711 £604
Quando le terre stavano finendo
Alessandra Bisi
Fine Art Drawings - 127 x 94 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 37 x 0.4 inch
£2,266
The little self made man
Víctor Hugo Yáñez Piña
Sculpture - 25 x 13 x 11 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 5.1 x 4.3 inch
£4,177
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.