Human body
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Partir Revenir 2
Carole Fournet
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$905
Partir Revenir 1
Carole Fournet
Fine Art Drawings - 83 x 54 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 32.7 x 21.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,357
Sisters in the garden, Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$735
To the Stars & Back
Zdenek Legner
Sculpture - 73 x 62.5 x 25 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 24.6 x 9.8 inch
$2,827
Lit de fougères 1
Michael Mouque
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,120
Lit de Fougères 2
Michael Mouque
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,120
Lit de Bruyères 1
Michael Mouque
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,120
La tête dans les étoiles
Michael Mouque
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,120
Le Rayon de Lumière
Michael Mouque
Photography - 30 x 45 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,696
Rebirth: Symbols of Motherhood "Being"
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$735
Union: Woman and Swan
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 60 x 40 x 1.8 cm Painting - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.7 inch
$735
The Modern Thinker (Le Penseur Moderne)
Bruno Cantais
Sculpture - 25 x 11 x 10 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 4.3 x 3.9 inch
$221 $199
The Perception of Love
Gago Chtchyan
Painting - 48 x 99 x 2 cm Painting - 18.9 x 39 x 0.8 inch
$2,714
El salto II
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 43 x 15 x 57.5 cm Sculpture - 16.9 x 5.9 x 22.6 inch
$5,089
El lugar que habito III
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 54 x 22 x 77 cm Sculpture - 21.3 x 8.7 x 30.3 inch
$4,863
Pixelated young torso
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 44.5 x 17 x 11 cm Sculpture - 17.5 x 6.7 x 4.3 inch
$1,873
Belisama hopefully
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 85 x 41 x 17 cm Sculpture - 33.5 x 16.1 x 6.7 inch
$5,654
Un Homme dans sa chambre
Jean Rustin
Painting - 146 x 114.5 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 45.1 x 0.8 inch
$26,011
Brigitte et ciseaux
Jean-Pierre Le Boul'ch
Painting - 93 x 74 x 2 cm Painting - 36.6 x 29.1 x 0.8 inch
$3,619
Torsion - Nu
Frédérique Maillart
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$452
T'espero
Alexandra Sans Massó
Fine Art Drawings - 37 x 27.8 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14.6 x 10.9 x 0.1 inch
$339
Cian - Airositat
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
$339
Potser sí
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
$339
Berger I
Alexandra Sans Massó
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 39.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 15.6 x 0.1 inch
$339
Berger II
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
$339
Berger III
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
$339
Magenta - Vagueries
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
$339
Guerrero herido
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 29.5 x 48.5 x 31 cm Sculpture - 11.6 x 19.1 x 12.2 inch
$5,768
My Fair Lady
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 70 x 100 x 1.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.6 inch
$2,262 $1,809
Corps et Couleurs
Raslain Tariffe
Painting - 130 x 97 x 1.5 cm Painting - 51.2 x 38.2 x 0.6 inch
$6,785
Fertility of Chaos
Jennifer DeGroot
Painting - 122 x 122 x 4 cm Painting - 48 x 48 x 1.6 inch
$3,076
Fraternity 1
Abdulateef Salaudeen
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$3,250
The Bunny In The Window (1)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 58.4 cm Photography - 30 x 23 inch
$5,000
The Bunny In The Window
Tyler Shields
Photography - 50.8 x 38.1 cm Photography - 20 x 15 inch
$2,500
Ajala Travel 2
Abdulateef Salaudeen
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$2,500
Once Upon a Moonlit Night
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 80 x 110 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 43.3 x 0.8 inch
$5,541
Miss Shrimp and grits
Marian Smith
Painting - 30.5 x 40.6 x 3 cm Painting - 12 x 16 x 1.2 inch
$1,470
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.