Human body
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Danse des lasers
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$1,074
Façon Marilyn
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 45 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,074
Dawning Contours
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 81 x 110 x 0.3 cm Painting - 31.9 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,714
De l'amour (big)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 168 x 63 x 78 cm Sculpture - 66.1 x 24.8 x 30.7 inch
$27,085
L'uomo Che Guarda - V
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,006
Burnt by the Sun
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,006
Early Morning Awakening
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 105 x 162 x 2 cm Painting - 41.3 x 63.8 x 0.8 inch
$4,410
White Square Nude
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 110 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,488
Le temps
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 57 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22.4 x 16.5 inch
$1,074
Extimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,524
Intimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,524
De la série : La beauté des femmes - thoughtfull
Matthias Leupold
Photography - 20 x 15 cm Photography - 7.9 x 5.9 inch
$1,357
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 bain de Clotilde
Martine Haeuw
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,108
Breaking ties, sinking ship.
Gabrielle Rul
Painting - 42.5 x 41.5 x 1 cm Painting - 16.7 x 16.3 x 0.4 inch
$792
Sud
Witold Pyzik
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,036
La mer se retire
Witold Pyzik
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
$2,036
F0102 – La renversante
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$2,036
HB1424 – Collection purity
Idan Wizen
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$2,036
Mademoiselle
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 36 x 23 x 7 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 9.1 x 2.8 inch
$1,357
Pas d’bleu
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 20 x 16 x 6 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 6.3 x 2.4 inch
$1,131
Danseurs
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 28 x 14 x 12 cm Sculpture - 11 x 5.5 x 4.7 inch
$1,131
Test de apercepción temática
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 65 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
$3,166
I am fleeting #12. From I am fleeting Series
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
Etude pour les arbrorigènes
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 29 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.4 x 0 inch
$15,267
Etude pour les Arbrorigènes
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 29 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.4 inch
$15,267
Shadow 11
Irakli (Akuna) Kavtaradze
Painting - 50 x 40 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,244
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
Thai au coucher de soleil
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
$905
Diu nu de pleine lune
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 40 x 60 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 inch
$905
Joy nu de pleine lune
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
$905
Reflection, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,696
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
Etude pour une allégorie de la justice
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 101 x 64 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.8 x 25.2 inch
$33,927
Distant sky
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$735
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
$2,149
Curves #45
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,696
Curves #42
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,696
Curves #30
Michal Zahornacky
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,696
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.