Human body
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A Frog Atop Water (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,467
A Frog Atop Water (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 121.9 x 182.9 cm Photography - 48 x 72 inch
£20,734
A Frog Atop Water (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£12,440
Lo que amas, lo pierdes en cuanto te vuelves de espaldas
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 146 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
£2,858
The man (after pina bausch) forbidden collage (6)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£2,144
Desperate Housewives (Marylin Monroe)
Kobalt
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.2 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£290
Glisser dans l'onde d'un rêve
Alain Vintenon
Painting - 82.5 x 93 x 4 cm Painting - 32.5 x 36.6 x 1.6 inch
£4,764
Pour the blood of the Gods
Elizabeth Hefty-Khoury
Painting - 159 x 89.75 x 0.1 cm Painting - 62.6 x 35.3 x 0 inch
£1,778
French School - Portrait PS243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 58.5 x 54 x 3.5 cm Painting - 23 x 21.3 x 1.4 inch
£1,251
A set of 3 Polaroids from the Do it Yourself Series
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 10.1 x 7.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 4 x 3 x 0.1 inch
£1,244
Dessins préparatoires pour Pasolini
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 52.5 x 99 cm Fine Art Drawings - 20.7 x 39 inch
£19,651
Las tres columnas
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 53.3 x 15 x 65 cm Sculpture - 21 x 5.9 x 25.6 inch
£4,020
Entre la multitud, estás solo tú
Salustiano
Print - 152 x 112 x 1 cm Print - 59.8 x 44.1 x 0.4 inch
£4,645
All Aboard (Lightbox)
David Drebin
Photography - 121.9 x 152.4 cm Photography - 48 x 60 inch
£29,856
Nu debout de trois-quart face
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£715
Nu accroupi de trois-quart
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£715
Figure Coalescing with Nature
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 22 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.1 inch
£893
Cool and Reclined
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 30 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
£795
Figure in Nature (Primaries)
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 15 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.7 x 5.9 x 0.1 inch
£777
The Splinter (l'Eclat)
Matteo Fieno
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
Sold
Domaine Faiveley bleu
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 31 x 52 x 1 cm Painting - 12.2 x 20.5 x 0.4 inch
£1,072
Domaine Faiveley
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 31 x 52 x 0.5 cm Painting - 12.2 x 20.5 x 0.2 inch
£1,072
Clochette Dark
Caz In The Machine
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
£893
Bigfoot 100 5/8
Idan Zareski
Sculpture - 36 x 58 x 100 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 22.8 x 39.4 inch
£40,195
Fleur - Charlotte
Nando Kallweit
Sculpture - 30 x 8 x 12 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 3.1 x 4.7 inch
£1,072
Diverse
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 150 x 117 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 46.1 x 0 inch
£3,662
Let Them Drink Champagne (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 57.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 22.5 x 30 inch
£4,147
Heir To The Throne (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 57.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 22.5 x 30 inch
£4,147
Demi buste femme 4
Hassan Laamirat
Sculpture - 73 x 40 x 15 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 15.7 x 5.9 inch
£411
Cineris. De la serie Renascere
Aku Menditeguy
Print - 28 x 18 x 0.1 cm Print - 11 x 7.1 x 0 inch
£108
Centimetri di Cielo
Elisa Gambalonga
Photography - 90 x 60 x 1.5 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.6 inch
£1,429
L'ora del Rosso
Elisa Gambalonga
Photography - 90 x 60 x 1.5 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.6 inch
£1,429
La tourbière
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 42 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
£1,251
Nu à l'étang
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 54 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 21.3 x 0.2 inch
£1,072
La déclaration - Sculpture bronze
Plaf
Sculpture - 16.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 6.5 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
£1,340
Annonciation en rose
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 80 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
£759
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.