Human body
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California IV
Clara Delaporte
Photography - 40 x 60 x 4 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
$1,132
Marilyn in Vogue (1962)
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 x 0.4 inch
$2,818
Marilyn stretching the jewelry
Bert Stern
Photography - 33 x 48 cm Photography - 13 x 18.9 inch
$2,818
Les Villes Intérieures 2/9
Daniel Cayo
Painting - 75 x 25 x 4 cm Painting - 29.5 x 9.8 x 1.6 inch
$905
Safe zone
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,697
Botanique Indigofera Tinctoria #6
Akira Inumaru
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1.5 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
$1,811
#5 from Witness of 2020 Series
Guy Ghazanchyan
Painting - 65 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,132
Marilyn in Famous Black Dress (1962)
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 x 0.4 inch
$2,818
Carcasse # 8
Pascal Marlin
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$849
Letter Dancers 200
Mehdi Mirbagheri
Painting - 120 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
$6,790
Désir Noir, comme la Nuit
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,697
The Spirit of the Dead is Watching
Alex Hodge
Sculpture - 15.2 x 16.5 x 11.4 cm Sculpture - 6 x 6.5 x 4.5 inch
$1,700
Interprétation du Cycle de Reproduction et du Flux Migratoire
Samuel Favarica
Print - 90 x 90 x 1 cm Print - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$2,263
Forever (middelgroot)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 95 x 25 x 20 cm Sculpture - 37.4 x 9.8 x 7.9 inch
$11,203
Marilyn colour nude on the bed
Bert Stern
Photography - 33 x 48 cm Photography - 13 x 18.9 inch
$2,818
Les bas fonds II
Clara Delaporte
Photography - 60 x 40 x 2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,132
Mujer al trasluz
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 65 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
$1,018
Reclamo anónimo
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 80 x 40 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,132
Buio omega
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 36 x 27.8 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14.2 x 10.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,120
Le daufin - de la mer - le cobra indien
André Robillard
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$1,811
Arcane IX- L’Hermite
Richard Laillier
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 20 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.2 inch
$1,132
Arcane III- L’Impératrice
Richard Laillier
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 20 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.2 inch
$1,132
N°100.150-4 14 (NG13)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$4,866
N°100-114 12 (NG51)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,949
N°100-198 14 (NG06)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,949
Untitled from the series Shifty Packets
Colleen Wolstenholme
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 36 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 14.2 inch
$1,300
Untitled from the series Shifty Packets
Colleen Wolstenholme
Fine Art Drawings - 36 x 28 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14.2 x 11 inch
$900
Untitled from the series Shifty Packets
Colleen Wolstenholme
Fine Art Drawings - 48 x 60 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.9 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
$1,600
100-143 12 (NG71)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,949
N°80-4 14A (NG22)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$2,490
N°100-200 14 (NG19)
Nicolas Galtier
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,949
Gaudí 014
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 80 x 60 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 inch
$905
Sans titre 3
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 60 x 90 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,358
Poésie 29
Yanne Kintgen
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 20 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,415
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.