Human body
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L'uomo Che Guarda - VI
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$998
L'uomo Che Guarda - V
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$998
Early Morning Awakening
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 105 x 162 x 2 cm Painting - 41.3 x 63.8 x 0.8 inch
$4,375
White Square Nude
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 110 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,468
Le temps
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 57 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22.4 x 16.5 inch
$1,066
Extimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,488
Intimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,488
#13 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 67.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26.6 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Female Figure in Tangerine
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 43.2 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$490
Male Figure in Blue
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 43.2 x 2.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 17 x 1 inch
$490
I am dissolved 1
Javier Rey
Photography - 60 x 43 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 16.9 x 0.1 inch
$945
Errabundeo (Córdoba 2)
Javier Rey
Photography - 53 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20.9 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Le Rolleiflex - Série Les Caprices de Madame Bovary
Takala
Photography - 105 x 105 x 4 cm Photography - 41.3 x 41.3 x 1.6 inch
$1,683
De la série : La beauté des femmes - ingénieux
Matthias Leupold
Photography - 18 x 23 cm Photography - 7.1 x 9.1 inch
$1,346
Reflection, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,683
Mademoiselle
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 36 x 23 x 7 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 9.1 x 2.8 inch
$1,346
Pas d’bleu
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 20 x 16 x 6 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 6.3 x 2.4 inch
$1,122
Danseurs
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 28 x 14 x 12 cm Sculpture - 11 x 5.5 x 4.7 inch
$1,122
Test de apercepción temática
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 65 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
$3,141
I am a passenger 12
Javier Rey
Photography - 110 x 165 x 0.3 cm Photography - 43.3 x 65 x 0.1 inch
$2,450
Engulfment Cartagena 8
Javier Rey
Photography - 73 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 28.7 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,750
Engulfment Cartagena 6
Javier Rey
Photography - 65 x 43 x 0.3 cm Photography - 25.6 x 16.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,100
Engulfment Cartagena 5
Javier Rey
Photography - 71 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 28 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,750
Engulfment Cartagena 4
Javier Rey
Photography - 110 x 73 x 0.3 cm Photography - 43.3 x 28.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,750
Engulfment Cartagena 2
Javier Rey
Photography - 110 x 73 x 0.3 cm Photography - 43.3 x 28.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,750
Sans titre (8)
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$673
Troux divine
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$673
Notre pain quotidien
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$673
Sans titre
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0.4 inch
$673
Sans titre
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 29 x 21 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.4 x 8.3 x 0.4 inch
$673
Shadow 11
Irakli (Akuna) Kavtaradze
Painting - 50 x 40 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,234
De la série : La beauté des femmes - thoughtfull
Matthias Leupold
Photography - 20 x 15 cm Photography - 7.9 x 5.9 inch
$1,346 $1,023
I am disolved #3
Javier Rey
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$945
Hercules breaking the bonds of Prometheus II
Derek Overfield
Painting - 121.9 x 76.2 x 7.6 cm Painting - 48 x 30 x 3 inch
$1,540
Woman with yellow stocking
Barbara Kroll
Painting - 99.1 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Painting - 39 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$1,800
Distant sky
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$729
Corps femme bras en l'air
Sébastien Langloÿs
Sculpture - 34 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 13.4 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$2,132
Curves #45
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,683
Curves #42
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,683
Curves #30
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,683
Le saut de l’ange
Claude Weisbuch
Print - 105 x 72 x 0.2 cm Print - 41.3 x 28.3 x 0.1 inch
$4,375 $3,938
Nude Future
Andrea Vandoni
Painting - 70 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,739 $1,479
Lectrice dans ses pensées
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 35 x 28 x 33 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 11 x 13 inch
$4,028
Lectrice main sur genoux série 35
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 33 x 23 x 35 cm Sculpture - 13 x 9.1 x 13.8 inch
$4,028
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.