Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
A set of 3 Polaroids from the Do it Yourself Series
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 10.1 x 7.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 4 x 3 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Las tres columnas
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 53.3 x 15 x 65 cm Sculpture - 21 x 5.9 x 25.6 inch
$5,057
Desperate Housewives (Marylin Monroe)
Kobalt
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.2 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$365
Purity - Composition 27-1
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 180 x 1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 70.9 x 0.4 inch
$5,225
The Boomer Collection - HB2996
Idan Wizen
Photography - 80 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0 inch
$2,809
Entre la multitud, estás solo tú
Salustiano
Print - 152 x 112 x 1 cm Print - 59.8 x 44.1 x 0.4 inch
$5,843
Heart Of Fire (Lightbox)
David Drebin
Photography - 101.6 x 172.7 cm Photography - 40 x 68 inch
$36,000
Figure Coalescing with Nature
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 22 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,124
Cool and Reclined
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 30 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Figure in Nature (Primaries)
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 15 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.7 x 5.9 x 0.1 inch
$978
Symbolizing Love When Words Are Not Enough
Malwina Jagora
Painting - 80 x 130 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 51.2 x 0.4 inch
$4,489
Sometimes All You Can Do is Just Giving a Hug
Malwina Jagora
Painting - 100 x 80 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$4,152
French School - Portrait PS243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 58.5 x 54 x 3.5 cm Painting - 23 x 21.3 x 1.4 inch
$1,573
Dessins préparatoires pour Pasolini
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 52.5 x 99 cm Fine Art Drawings - 20.7 x 39 inch
$24,721
Domaine Faiveley bleu
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 31 x 52 x 1 cm Painting - 12.2 x 20.5 x 0.4 inch
$1,348
Domaine Faiveley
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 31 x 52 x 0.5 cm Painting - 12.2 x 20.5 x 0.2 inch
$1,348
Clochette Dark
Caz In The Machine
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,124
To melt - série portrait de femme
Karine Azoulay (1kazou)
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,686
Aus der Serie: Antike Zukunfts-Bunt
The opium smoking white elephant
Print - 30 x 30 x 0.1 cm Print - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$449 $315
Fleur - Charlotte
Nando Kallweit
Sculpture - 30 x 8 x 12 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 3.1 x 4.7 inch
$1,348
Nu debout de trois-quart face
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$899
Nu accroupi de trois-quart
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$899
Les voyageurs de la Terre
Yvan Genest
Painting - 76.2 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 30 x 36 x 1.5 inch
$3,100
Annonciation en rose
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 80 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
$955
Better Than Life (after Harland Miller) | Fotografiska Berlin 2024 : Miles Aldridge : Virgin Mary. Supermarkets. Popcorn.
Miles Aldridge
Photography - 75 x 103 cm Photography - 29.5 x 40.6 inch
$8,428
La tourbière
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 42 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
$1,573
Nu à l'étang
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 54 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 21.3 x 0.2 inch
$1,348
La fille de Dioné et de Zeus
Alexei Lantsev
Painting - 110 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 43.3 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$4,045
La déclaration - Sculpture bronze
Plaf
Sculpture - 16.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 6.5 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
$1,686
The Raven and The Dove
Donovan Rose
Painting - 122 x 152 x 4 cm Painting - 48 x 59.8 x 1.6 inch
$3,820 $3,247
Bigfoot 100 5/8
Idan Zareski
Sculpture - 36 x 58 x 100 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 22.8 x 39.4 inch
$50,565
Green Lady
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 17 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 4.7 x 6.7 x 0.1 inch
$697
La marche légère
Guillaume Roche
Sculpture - 153 x 50 x 27 cm Sculpture - 60.2 x 19.7 x 10.6 inch
$8,989
Let Them Drink Champagne (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 57.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 22.5 x 30 inch
$5,000
Heir To The Throne (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 57.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 22.5 x 30 inch
$5,000
Diverse
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 150 x 117 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 46.1 x 0 inch
$4,607
Sinner's Prayer
Jennifer DeGroot
Painting - 92 x 92 x 4 cm Painting - 36.2 x 36.2 x 1.6 inch
$1,680 $1,428
Laocoonte. Série Introspectiva
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 73 x 146 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 57.5 x 0.8 inch
$3,820
The Teles River Bed (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 50.8 x 76.2 cm Photography - 20 x 30 inch
$5,000
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.