Human body
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De Chlore et de Rosé
Christopher Barraja
Photography - 90 x 60 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 inch
$1,342
Histoire d'été
Volodymyr Kolesnyk
Painting - 100 x 85 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 33.5 x 1 inch
$4,864
Les filles de mai
Jean-Louis Mendrisse
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$4,026
Splashed by the waves of the sea
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 110 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 43.3 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$3,915
Antique games. Antique drama.
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$7,326
Version rock
Isabelle Hirtzig
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$240
Venice 16th Century - Venetian Courtesan
Reneta Isin
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$21,251
Black and White Beauty
Reneta Isin
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$19,014
Le Tango Du Feu (Réf. 148)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,069
Red Rock (Réf. 142)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 60 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$2,069
Bettie Page Clutching Robe
Bunny Yeager
Photography - 61 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$5,000
Las tres columnas
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 53.3 x 15 x 65 cm Sculpture - 21 x 5.9 x 25.6 inch
$5,033
The white towel
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 100 x 110 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 43.3 x 1 inch
$3,915
Rainy erotica-III
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$358
Rainy erotica-II
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$324
Entre la multitud, estás solo tú
Salustiano
Print - 152 x 112 x 1 cm Print - 59.8 x 44.1 x 0.4 inch
$5,816
Fuck the rules in Chanel
Cécile Plaisance
Photography - 125 x 95 x 2 cm Photography - 49.2 x 37.4 x 0.8 inch
$17,895
Cornette Nude & Hand (Couleur)
Cécile Plaisance
Photography - 57 x 70 cm Photography - 22.4 x 27.6 inch
$9,171
Lecture d'un matin (série liber paper)
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 50 x 30 x 29 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 11.8 x 11.4 inch
$1,678
Petite penseuse
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 20 x 14.5 x 11 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 5.7 x 4.3 inch
$4,026
La Flamme
Marie Thérèse Tsalapatanis
Sculpture - 55 x 35 x 25 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 13.8 x 9.8 inch
$8,500
Poèmes insoumis
André Masson
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 13 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.1 inch
$2,461 $2,215
Marilyn Monroe. Baby Nude
Bert Stern
Photography - 31 x 45 x 1 cm Photography - 12.2 x 17.7 x 0.4 inch
$5,480
I am fleeting #13. From I am fleeting Series
Javier Rey
Photography - 73 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 28.7 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,450
La gardien de la forêt, Kuntermann, Monumentale
Christophe Charbonnel
Sculpture - 241 x 105 x 93 cm Sculpture - 94.9 x 41.3 x 36.6 inch
$123,031
Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 90 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$5,816
Don Quichotte Comes Back to Wisdom
Joanna Glazer
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$548
C'est moi (Réf.255)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 35 x 27 x 2 cm Painting - 13.8 x 10.6 x 0.8 inch
$783
Les Acrobates VII
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 69.9 x 90.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.5 x 35.5 x 0.1 inch
$3,500
Hamami, Istanbul from the Mani series
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 69.9 x 97.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.5 x 38.5 x 0.1 inch
$3,500
Seated Nude in Profile
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 73 x 53 x 0.5 cm Painting - 28.7 x 20.9 x 0.2 inch
$1,174
Un filo per il profilo
Morandi Giancarlo
Sculpture - 165 x 30 x 12 cm Sculpture - 65 x 11.8 x 4.7 inch
$2,796
Ellekach
Nicolas Dubreuille
Photography - 60 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,405
La déclaration - Sculpture bronze
Plaf
Sculpture - 16.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 6.5 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
$1,678
Nu a la Guitarre (Serenade) from the Nudes Suite
Salvador Dali
Print - 52.1 x 71.1 cm Print - 20.5 x 28 inch
$4,500
A Corps Perdus Performance
Feng Kaixuan
Photography - 30 x 45 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0.4 inch
$805
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.