Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Kouros .04, Back Pink
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 61 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Satyr, Drawing Restraint 7, Matthew Barney studio, NYC
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 61 x 43.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 17 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 5, Gellert Bath House, Budapest
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 61 x 43.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 17 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 5
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 43.2 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 17 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Man with crossed arms II
Derek Overfield
Painting - 121.9 x 76.2 x 7.6 cm Painting - 48 x 30 x 3 inch
$740
Blasphemy upon the wall
Derek Overfield
Painting - 121.9 x 76.2 x 7.6 cm Painting - 48 x 30 x 3 inch
$740
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 5
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 43.2 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 17 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
La crème était presque parfaite
Petites Luxures
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
$1,006
Two starlings and a butterfly (Triptych) II
Ottelien Huckin
Painting - 34 x 68 x 1 cm Painting - 13.4 x 26.8 x 0.4 inch
$2,907
Se la couler douche
Petites Luxures
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
$1,006
Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 90 x 110 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 43.3 x 0.8 inch
$4,942
Woman and Tropical Landscapes
Jorge Carruana
Painting - 135 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 53.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$5,366
La Grande Vague
Laurent Betremieux
Painting - 146 x 115 x 1 cm Painting - 57.5 x 45.3 x 0.4 inch
$3,578
Fragmentation - Planète Terre
Claude Laffaye
Painting - 20 x 20 x 2 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
$168
Défense de stationner
Joann Côté
Painting - 111.8 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 60 x 2 inch
$4,000
Dark and luminous self portrait
Joann Côté
Painting - 132.1 x 111.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 52 x 44 x 2 inch
$3,750
A Bagno Maria
Claire Denarie-Soffietti
Painting - 120 x 90 x 5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 2 inch
$10,621
CoRpus AC maNus
Louis Blanc
Photography - 70 x 70 x 0.1 cm Photography - 27.6 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$7,267
Le lac
Olena Siniuhina
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 25 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 9.8 x 0.2 inch
$134
Prometheus outside
Alberto La Tassa
Painting - 250 x 300 x 3 cm Painting - 98.4 x 118.1 x 1.2 inch
$39,130
Val surprises
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$212
The woman on the sofa
Antonio Feltrinelli
Painting - 90 x 104 x 1.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 40.9 x 0.6 inch
$17,888
Atlantias série corps d'homme
Chantal Molinié Jonquet
Sculpture - 64 x 48 x 19 cm Sculpture - 25.2 x 18.9 x 7.5 inch
$6,373
The Midnight Dress
Sue Rosalind Vesely
Painting - 120 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,855
To the white wall
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 100 x 130 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 51.2 x 0.8 inch
$4,248
Olympia (d'après Manet)
Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 100 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 39.4 inch
$6,149
A memory of an unfullfilled love
Alex Manchev
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$324
JoŸau 55 Original n° EA I/IV
Sébastien Langloÿs
Sculpture - 6 x 5 x 6.5 cm Sculpture - 2.4 x 2 x 2.6 inch
$436
JoŸau 42 Original n° EA II/IV
Sébastien Langloÿs
Sculpture - 7 x 5 x 4 cm Sculpture - 2.8 x 2 x 1.6 inch
$436
On the way to Arcadia - II
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,795
Miss Shrimp and grits
Marian Smith
Painting - 30.5 x 40.6 x 3 cm Painting - 12 x 16 x 1.2 inch
$1,453
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.