Human body
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L'origine du monde (2)
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 50 x 100 cm Photography - 19.7 x 39.4 inch
$897
New Baby on the bed
Bert Stern
Photography - 31 x 45 x 1 cm Photography - 12.2 x 17.7 x 0.4 inch
$4,484
Cinq fois à terre, six fois debout
Sange
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,099
Blue Bananas
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 55 x 36 x 2 cm Painting - 21.7 x 14.2 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Singularity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$841
Thought I wasn't enough
Janet Adebayo
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$1,990 $1,791
Ilori 1 (Take In)
Janet Adebayo
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$1,990 $1,791
Ilori 2 (Heavy)
Janet Adebayo
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$1,990 $1,791
Danseur
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 14 x 22 x 9 cm Sculpture - 5.5 x 8.7 x 3.5 inch
$1,121
Acrobate
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 30 x 10 x 10 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
$1,121
Life from wheels
Daniil Danailov
Sculpture - 70 x 40 x 32 cm Sculpture - 27.6 x 15.7 x 12.6 inch
$953
Guerrière avec boule à paillettes
Bruno Fournier
Photography - 22 x 22 x 1 cm Photography - 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,065
Modèle black endormi
Serge Kalinowski
Painting - 55 x 46 x 5 cm Painting - 21.7 x 18.1 x 2 inch
$1,382
Eclipse, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Entrée en matière – Je ne me souviens plus des prénoms
Jean-Pierre Le Boul'ch
Painting - 56 x 48 x 2 cm Painting - 22 x 18.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,794
Looking for the past
Stefan Hadzi Nikolov
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,626
Colorful emotions
Rossella Mercedes
Painting - 29.7 x 42 x 1.5 cm Painting - 11.7 x 16.5 x 0.6 inch
$673
Processus Léa 17
Yannick Bouillault
Sculpture - 46 x 40 x 37 cm Sculpture - 18.1 x 15.7 x 14.6 inch
$2,130
Mare Playboy FotoErotica 2016
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$617
Sans titre
Ayako David Kawauchi
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 23 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 9.1 x 0 inch
$1,009
Petite femme enceinte 3
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 12.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 4.9 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
$437
Two hearts
Mino Maccari
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 16 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 6.3 x 0.1 inch
$762
Risque 24-03-22
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 21.1 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,622
Solarized Roundism 01-07-22
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 21.1 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,730
Lady In Purple
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 20 x 20 x 1 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,682
Nude No. 4
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,682
Nude No.3
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,682
Nude No.2
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,682
Nude No.1
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,682
Le cerveau des amoureux
Jean-Jacques Venturini
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,121
Some girls #11
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 44 x 32 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.3 x 12.6 inch
$1,009
Untitled III
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 58.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 23.19 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
De la série : La beauté des femmes - ingénieux
Matthias Leupold
Photography - 18 x 23 cm Photography - 7.1 x 9.1 inch
$1,345
PS 238 Le temps des jonquilles
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 61 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
$1,682 $1,446
PS 233 La fauve s'habille en léopard - French school
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 70 x 50 x 3.8 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.5 inch
$1,906 $1,639
I turned off the light
Joann Côté
Painting - 99.1 x 63.5 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39 x 25 x 2 inch
$2,500
Sculpture de Vénus
Natalie Shiporina
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
What are your Neighbours Doing Next?
Hiromi Sengoku
Painting - 60.6 x 45.5 x 3 cm Painting - 23.9 x 17.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,682
Dawning Contours
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 81 x 110 x 0.3 cm Painting - 31.9 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,691
Née de la Vague
Lucien Clergue
Photography - 50 x 32 x 0.05 cm Photography - 19.7 x 12.6 x 0 inch
$3,924
Obra del Grupo Danza del Alma, Cuba
Sonia Almaguer
Photography - 32 x 24 x 2 cm Photography - 12.6 x 9.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,345
Early Morning Awakening
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 105 x 162 x 2 cm Painting - 41.3 x 63.8 x 0.8 inch
$4,372
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.