Human body
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La marche des ombres : la supplication
C. Leg
Painting - 100 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$4,026
Materia No. 3, Series V
Mario Henrique
Painting - 190 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 74.8 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$9,900
Femme au masque de singe
Alain Quercia
Sculpture - 36 x 9 x 5 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 3.5 x 2 inch
$4,026
Sculpture de lumière
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 70 x 50 x 0.6 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,678
Le poids des années
Sabine Louriac
Painting - 48 x 36 x 0.15 cm Painting - 18.9 x 14.2 x 0.1 inch
$380
In dreams
Anna Lageda
Fine Art Drawings - 44 x 62 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.3 x 24.4 x 0 inch
$447
On a colorful bedspread
Anna Lageda
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 60 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$447
Si belle dans tes yeux
Emilie Teillaud
Painting - 15 x 10 x 0.2 cm Painting - 5.9 x 3.9 x 0.1 inch
$280
Corps d'été
Valentine Bouvet
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
$280
Sans titre
Alexandre Saint-Loup
Photography - 150 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$2,718
Sans titre
Alexandre Saint-Loup
Photography - 150 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$2,718
Sans titre
Alexandre Saint-Loup
Photography - 150 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$2,718
Natural o artificial, tú decides
Maite Albors
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
$9,731
Model, 1979
Paolo Ambrosio
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 35 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 13.8 x 0 inch
$224
Flou 2
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$336
In the mirror
Raphaelle Emery
Fine Art Drawings - 15.5 x 6.6 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.1 x 2.6 x 0 inch
$168
Half dolls talk No.3
Dana Widawski
Sculpture - 39.9 x 24.9 x 15.2 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 9.8 x 6 inch
$6,934
Broken flower no. 3
Dana Widawski
Sculpture - 25.4 x 16 x 11.4 cm Sculpture - 10 x 6.3 x 4.5 inch
$6,040
Composition with model, 1979
Paolo Ambrosio
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 35 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 13.8 x 0 inch
$168
Le réconfort 1
LN Le Cheviller
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$772
Adam and Eve VIII
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.6 inch
$369
Nude III
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.5 inch
$369
The Three Graces
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.8 inch
$380
Venus of Urbino, after Titian
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.5 inch
$380
Venus with a mirror II, after Velazquez
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.5 inch
$380
Belisama La femme ruban
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 53 x 41 x 15 cm Sculpture - 20.9 x 16.1 x 5.9 inch
$2,740
Incandescente évanescence
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 57 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22.4 x 0 inch
$1,286
Et l'agneau dévora le loup
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Painting - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,286
Les ombres du tartare
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,063
Les ombres du tartare II
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,063
Ce qu'il y a entre nous 2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,063
Objection
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,063
Noire Tendresse
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,957
Memories from last night #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 65 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,901
Ne faire plus qu'un
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,063
Sweet Mistress
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,063
Toi & moi
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,063
Dos ensoleillé
Laurent Castellani
Photography - 100 x 70 x 0.01 cm Photography - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$7,270
Tribute to my father
Katha Rossein
Painting - 72 x 55 x 0.5 cm Painting - 28.3 x 21.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,796
Longing in black & white
Katha Rossein
Painting - 72 x 55 x 0.5 cm Painting - 28.3 x 21.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,796
Blue bird, Reflection five, Umami
San Kara
Painting - 119 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 46.9 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$8,333
Je l'ai sentie (I felt him)
San Kara
Painting - 119 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 46.9 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$8,333
To Melt/ To Crystallize
Hollie Miller
Photography - 42.9 x 76.2 x 0.2 cm Photography - 16.9 x 30 x 0.1 inch
$2,461
Sisyphe II grand format
Patrick Strajnic
Photography - 80 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,448
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.