Human body
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Lee au coucher de soleil
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
$897
Jittaporn nu de pleine lune
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 60 x 40 x 2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$897
Le voyage du peuple bleu
Yvan Genest
Painting - 152.4 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 inch
$10,400
Reflection, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Hollyhocks and butterflies
Ottelien Huckin
Painting - 45 x 32 x 1 cm Painting - 17.7 x 12.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,790
Eliza in the meadow
Ottelien Huckin
Painting - 45 x 32 x 1 cm Painting - 17.7 x 12.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,790
Dittico tratto da la delicatezza delle radici che emersero
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 80 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$818
Pupille
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
$561
libertà (a)morale (2 works)
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 59.4 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 23.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,009
La delicatezza delle radici che emersero (2 works)
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 80 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$774
Approach
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 96 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 37.8 x 0 inch
$2,937
Danse Du Feu (Réf. 121)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 100 x 81 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 0.8 inch
$3,139
More from Southend Beach
Manny Woodard
Sculpture - 59 x 19 x 19 cm Sculpture - 23.2 x 7.5 x 7.5 inch
$1,094
Amorphisms (él)
Javier Rey
Photography - 80 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,470
Find the nude 1
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$392
Nu 31
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$897
Nu 30
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$897
Find the nude 4
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$392
Find the nude 3
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$392
Find the nude 2
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$392
Relaxing Blues
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Painting - 160 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 63 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$9,641
Chanter et dancer
Lila Maroun Frem
Painting - 25 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 9.8 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$3,363
Amorphisms (solo)
Javier Rey
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,120
Engulfment (Tatacoa 4)
Javier Rey
Photography - 80 x 53 x 0.3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 20.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Tatacoa 3)
Javier Rey
Photography - 53 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20.9 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Nacional 3)
Javier Rey
Photography - 80 x 53 x 0.3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 20.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Nacional 2)
Javier Rey
Photography - 80 x 53 x 0.3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 20.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Mosquera 5)
Javier Rey
Photography - 53 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20.9 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Mosquera 1a)
Javier Rey
Photography - 110 x 106 x 0.3 cm Photography - 43.3 x 41.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Engulfment (Córdoba 5)
Javier Rey
Photography - 53 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20.9 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
I am dissolved #2
Javier Rey
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,350
Errabundeo (Córdoba 1)
Javier Rey
Photography - 53 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20.9 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,350
Ecouter le silence
Deville-Chabrolle
Sculpture - 39 x 28 x 26 cm Sculpture - 15.4 x 11 x 10.2 inch
$14,350
I got touch by god
Ritchelly Oliveira
Painting - 200 x 147 x 2 cm Painting - 78.7 x 57.9 x 0.8 inch
$20,740
Between fragilities
Ritchelly Oliveira
Painting - 204 x 147 x 2 cm Painting - 80.3 x 57.9 x 0.8 inch
$20,740
L'ancienne machine à laver - Portrait de femme
Henry Prost
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Nu 27
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$897
Le voyage au bout du monde
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 48 x 71 x 76 cm Sculpture - 18.9 x 28 x 29.9 inch
$14,574
Deconstructed Body (Red)
Rebecca Yunjeong Lee
Painting - 47 x 36 x 3 cm Painting - 18.5 x 14.2 x 1.2 inch
$620
To be honest
Rebecca Yunjeong Lee
Painting - 45.5 x 35 x 3 cm Painting - 17.9 x 13.8 x 1.2 inch
$620
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.