Human body
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#7 From La Piedra Sustituta II Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 61.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 24.2 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#21 From Un niño en el Chicle Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 66.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#17 From El envuelto Divino Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 70.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.9 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#16 From El envuelto Divino Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 71.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 28.1 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#15 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 70.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.7 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#12 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 66 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#6. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 65.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 25.7 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#5. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 69.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27.4 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#4. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 62 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 24.4 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
#3. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 59.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Misty and Claire
Nathalie Daoust
Photography - 45 x 65 x 1 cm Photography - 17.7 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,233
Euphoria
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$2,937
Dans les lueurs bleutées
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 61 x 50 x 5 cm Painting - 24 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$1,626
Untitled Women and man
Celso Castro
Painting - 99.1 x 121.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 39 x 48 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Nu à la couverture
Aimée De Courtozé
Painting - 60 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,345
Love-large size
Muraz Martirosyan
Sculpture - 59 x 18 x 13 cm Sculpture - 23.2 x 7.1 x 5.1 inch
$5,045
Autoportrait au loup
Pierre Molinier
Photography - 11 x 6.3 x 0.1 cm Photography - 4.3 x 2.5 x 0 inch
$2,018
Résilience - Prise de conscience et spiritualité - série Collages
Karine Barbier (dite Ka Bé)
Print - 80 x 60 x 0.2 cm Print - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,547
Aqua verde
Tanguy Mendrisse
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.3 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$179
A moment in heaven
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 160 x 45 x 60 cm Sculpture - 63 x 17.7 x 23.6 inch
$35,875
Bill, South Beach
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Francisco Castillo, Lotero
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Andrés, Verdugo
Celso Castro
Photography - 50.8 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 20 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Norberto con Trombón
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Luis Carlos de oso.
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Nude girl posing
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 130 x 72 x 4 cm Painting - 51.2 x 28.3 x 1.6 inch
$2,691
Saharian Sensuality
Tanguy Mendrisse
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$213
Inner silence (big)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 55 x 60 x 74 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 23.6 x 29.1 inch
$12,276
Tender is the night
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 40 x 22 x 35 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 8.7 x 13.8 inch
$7,736
Corps Raccords série 1 - 1/7
Sarah Salazar
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$463
#13 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 67.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26.6 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Chinese Interior #7
Robert van der Hilst
Photography - 42 x 49 cm Photography - 16.5 x 19.3 inch
$2,018
La dynamique des corps - Jours 02 - 04 - 05 - 08
La Robotte
Painting - 21 x 60 x 0.5 cm Painting - 8.3 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$448
Souvenir du Japon 2, Onsen
Marine Walon
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Etirement Déténte série 45
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 73 x 26 x 30 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 10.2 x 11.8 inch
$9,619
Les passants
Claire Bonnet-Masimbert
Sculpture - 70 x 24 x 24 cm Sculpture - 27.6 x 9.4 x 9.4 inch
$897
Bedroom blonde doodle with photo
Tom Wesselmann
Print - 61.875 x 71.5 x 2 cm Print - 24.4 x 28.1 x 0.8 inch
$42,500
El fauno de la rafia / The faun of the Raffia Palm
Luis Prada
Painting - 60 x 90 cm Painting - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
$1,794
Perle II
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 90 x 16 x 16 cm Sculpture - 35.4 x 6.3 x 6.3 inch
$1,626
L'uomo Che Guarda - V
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$998
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.