Human body
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Marisa Papen 2
Samuel Cueto
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.4 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.2 inch
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Euphoria
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
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Le dos
Evelyne Postic
Fine Art Drawings - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Arcadia five, Photograph, Archival ink jet
Aaron Knight
Photography - 66 x 96.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 26 x 38 x 0.1 inch
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Twofold, Photograph, Archival ink jet
Aaron Knight
Photography - 66 x 96.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 26 x 38 x 0.1 inch
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Ne plus savoir où aller
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
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No10 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 90 x 72 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 28.3 x 0 inch
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Diptyque No sabe qué es lo que ve / Todo aquello por lo que él mismo es digno de admiración
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 77 x 154 x 2 cm Painting - 30.3 x 60.6 x 0.8 inch
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Nude of Woman
Emile Gilioli
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 31 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 12.2 x 0 inch
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Erotic Drawing n. 2
Marcel Vertès
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 13.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 5.3 x 0 inch
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La légende de la Mandragore XIII
Marie-Josée Roy
Sculpture - 86.4 x 55.9 x 55.9 cm Sculpture - 34 x 22 x 22 inch
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Immersió 204
Oriol Texidor
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 30 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
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Voyance
Evelyne Postic
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 30 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
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Solor and Nikiya under Fireworks
Joanna Glazer
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
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Anna le bain
Merry Kerpitchian (Merry K)
Sculpture - 65 x 26 x 35 cm Sculpture - 25.6 x 10.2 x 13.8 inch
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Handsome stockings
Hiromi Sengoku
Painting - 33.3 x 24.2 x 3 cm Painting - 13.1 x 9.5 x 1.2 inch
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Untitled
Guyodo (Frantz Jacques)
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 60 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 23.6 inch
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Les Géantes, Camargue,
Lucien Clergue
Photography - 36.2 x 52.7 x 2.57 cm Photography - 14.3 x 20.7 x 1 inch
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Casque d'or
Sébastien Boismoreau (BEUS)
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 34 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 13.4 x 0 inch
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Anaglyphical Roundism 12-05-22
Corné Akkers
Painting - 100.1 x 70.1 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
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Some girls #5
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 34 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.4 x 8.3 inch
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A person who announces the flower blooming season
Hiromi Sengoku
Painting - 31.8 x 41 x 3 cm Painting - 12.5 x 16.1 x 1.2 inch
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Caractères héréditaires #4
Hélène Duclos
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
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Sans titre
Serigne Ibrahima Dièye
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 11.8 inch
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Tonal caballo 01
Eulogia Merle
Fine Art Drawings - 35 x 50 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.8 x 19.7 inch
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Euphoria
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
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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.