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.

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Human body

Être au milieu de sa forme

On est prié de tenir les siens en liesse

Les yeux infatigables de la stripteaseuse

Ma Chère… disait Sasoche

Le ravissant débordement de ses lèvres

Towards the Real me

La Nuit Des Amoureux (Réf.I)

Abstrait nu N°17

Abstrait nu N°18 - Stars in hairs - ocre

Cassandre

My main enemy

No title (No129)

WetWay

Moi et moi

Le Tango Du Feu (Réf. 148)

Red Rock (Réf. 142)

N°22036 Messager VIII

L'homme blanc

Le Temps Menaçant

No03 SPIRIT Series

Beatrix and Erika dancing in black

Anais

Flying thoughts

No45 SPIRIT Series

Âme de Lumiére

Les amoureux

Beatrix and Zsuzsa Dancing

Femme nue

D'un Monde à L'autre

Femme I

Erotic jazz (triptych)-II

Erotic jazz (triptych)-I

Satyr

A lady

Immaculada nº22

Immaculada nº23

RA

Silky dream

Reclining Woman on Sea Shore (framed hand signed lithograph)

Angel

No title (No112)

Le bonheur de Rosa

Hier

Female Torso in Grey (Bronze No. 8 of 10)

The white towel

Passion I

Behind Cactuses

Men fighting IV

Nu abstrait N°23 - Monstera palace

No title (No87)

Pupille

La delicatezza delle radici che emersero (2 works)

Amazone 180

Woman

Dawning Contours

White Square Nude

Sitting Nude

Side portrait

Mother Love

No title (No34)

Anna in Hammock

Shira

Hakusen

Before the jump 2

Seated Nude in Profile

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