Human body
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Marilyn Rare Black Dress (1962)
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 x 0.4 inch
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Neoflora Series 5
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
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Pretty young Egg Girl
Suthamma (Ta) Byrne
Painting - 120 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
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Onde II
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 82 x 11 x 11 cm Sculpture - 32.3 x 4.3 x 4.3 inch
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Rejoins-moi et contemplons
Cécile Thonus
Sculpture - 45.8 x 24.5 x 22 cm Sculpture - 18 x 9.6 x 8.7 inch
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Alice et la chenille
Michaël Brack
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
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En connaissance de cause #2
Hélène Duclos
Painting - 130 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 51.2 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
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Marilyn in Vogue (1962)
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 x 0.4 inch
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La femme a joué tous ses rôles
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 11 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 4.3 inch
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Untitled
Alexandre Taillandier
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 33 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 13 x 0.4 inch
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Journal D'Un Graveur - Vol. 2 Plate 15
Joan Miró
Print - 57 x 45.5 x 0.2 cm Print - 22.4 x 17.9 x 0.1 inch
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Sans Titre
Jean-Baptiste Dumont
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
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Marilyn in Famous Black Dress (1962)
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 x 0.4 inch
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Femme en Marche 2
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 39 x 7 x 9 cm Sculpture - 15.4 x 2.8 x 3.5 inch
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Supporting figures pink
Jonathan Chapline
Sculpture - 31 x 15 x 8 cm Sculpture - 12.2 x 5.9 x 3.1 inch
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Golden Flowers Fine Art print
Julien Colombier
Print - 160 x 110 x 1 cm Print - 63 x 43.3 x 0.4 inch
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Bérénice
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 102 x 18 x 18 cm Sculpture - 40.2 x 7.1 x 7.1 inch
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Espoirs de Femmes 2
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 73 x 30 x 35 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 11.8 x 13.8 inch
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Marilyn Monroe - The Last Sitting 5
Bert Stern
Photography - 24 x 24 cm Photography - 9.4 x 9.4 inch
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Portrait 3
Christophe Hohler
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 40 x 4.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.7 inch
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Woman with evening dress
Ana Garcia
Painting - 60 x 80 x 0.5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.2 inch
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Diving Into the Unknown
Antony Squizzato
Painting - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
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Homme-caillou pris par le vent
Antony Squizzato
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
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Sans titre
Charles Lapicque
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 20.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.1 inch
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Des matins plus durs que d'autres
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
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Andromaque: Le roi vient
Alekos Fassianos
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 26 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 10.2 x 0.4 inch
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T41 - Vieille femme Chinoise
Martin
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
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Présence
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 64 x 12 x 7 cm Sculpture - 25.2 x 4.7 x 2.8 inch
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L'incohérence des passages obligatoires #2
Hélène Duclos
Painting - 54 x 65 x 5 cm Painting - 21.3 x 25.6 x 2 inch
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Black Holes V
Ernesto Jesus Garcia
Painting - 29.5 x 41.5 x 1 cm Painting - 11.6 x 16.3 x 0.4 inch
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N°100-66 11 (NG21)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
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Judith et Holopherne
Herve Malcom Thomas
Painting - 146 x 114 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 0.8 inch
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Train de nuit #14
Philippe Saucourt
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
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Hips with Tassels
Hans Feurer
Photography - 57.8 x 48.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 22.75 x 19.25 x 0.1 inch
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Sillon S5
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 71 x 11 x 13 cm Sculpture - 28 x 4.3 x 5.1 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.