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

Gaïa

L'autoportrait ou l'inversion du sujet

Stranded

Quando le terre stavano finendo

Yellow swimsuits

Femme nu

Monarch And The Milkweed (Study)

Récolte d'étoile

Attitude

Solitude

Solène

Siesta (Descanso) after sex

Semeur d'éclats 2/8

Sleep 3

Spring is in the air

Merging with nature

Espionne

168.05.12

Palm Springs Pool Party

Katie

Torse en bronze coulé patine en oxyde vert

Into the Light

Seated Torso

Study for reclining

Récitation à l’éloge d’une Reine

Les Amies

Merge together

Influences

Woman

Framing

Mujeres del Verano

Dona1 Despertar

Sea nymph in azure serenity

Study #2 of three phrases

Guy with a paste earring

Jonas

Sexy Robot Floating (Silver)

Corps rêvé réel 1

NUDE Lovers 4

Esquisse ayin 1

A window

Nus Sur Pierres

Lauren

Sans titre

La plus précieuse des lèpres

Aria di Giovan-nana

Femme chinoise

Nombril #4389

Seated Figure

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Ombre et lumière no 8

Nun Blum

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Consolation - série corps de femme

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Reach out + Shake it (s)

Akt

Torse masculin

La Carine-Celle de Bois-Le-Vent

Heaven and Hell

Elle pense à son amoureux, nue sur un fauteuil

Siesta

Hat

Nude

Looking for the past

Nu à l'échelle