Human body
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Mon chameau
Emmanuelle Barbaras
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$781
Dancer: Karolina #1
Cody Choi
Photography - 101.6 x 76.2 x 0.1 cm Photography - 40 x 30 x 0 inch
$595
Between The Light - Magenta V1
Sophie Derrick
Painting - 180 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 70.9 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$11,121
Between The Light - Neon Lemon V1
Sophie Derrick
Painting - 180 x 120 x 5 cm Painting - 70.9 x 47.2 x 2 inch
$11,121
Between The Light - Titanium on Viridian V1 Edit
Sophie Derrick
Painting - 180 x 120 x 5 cm Painting - 70.9 x 47.2 x 2 inch
$11,121
Stone & ceramic composition
Stavri Kalinov
Painting - 32 x 26 x 2 cm Painting - 12.6 x 10.2 x 0.8 inch
$1,674
Ecce Homo, mémoire de Rembrandt
Gérard Ricard
Painting - 150 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$3,349
Un Français a donné un canapé, quatre chaises et un fauteuil
Alexander Daniloff
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 24 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 9.4 x 0.1 inch
$290
Le commencement - série silhouettes humaines
Maryline Rigaut
Painting - 30 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$363
La vie en bleue - série silhouette humaine
Maryline Rigaut
Painting - 30 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$363
Un homme de valeur - série silhouette humaine
Maryline Rigaut
Painting - 30 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$363
I Will Live, Existence series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$726
Light of Love
Irakli Tsuladze
Sculpture - 110 x 60 x 60 cm Sculpture - 43.3 x 23.6 x 23.6 inch
$3,126
A Man with a Rake, Hayfield
Alexander Sviyazov
Sculpture - 42 x 27 x 10 cm Sculpture - 16.5 x 10.6 x 3.9 inch
$7,256 $6,167
A Man leaned against the Water Column
Alexander Sviyazov
Sculpture - 45 x 51 x 23 cm Sculpture - 17.7 x 20.1 x 9.1 inch
$7,814 $6,642
Man Curve Three: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
Man Curve Two: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
Man waist One: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
Man waist Two: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
Man jumping our of the water, Two: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
Model for Monument to the White Squirrel
Brandon Vickerd
Sculpture - 30.5 x 30.5 x 20.3 cm Sculpture - 12 x 12 x 8 inch
$6,698
Outlook (I Dream of Japan)
Judith Berry
Painting - 152 x 224 x 3 cm Painting - 59.8 x 88.2 x 1.2 inch
$11,500
Beer met jong op rug
Evert den Hartog
Sculpture - 50 x 65 x 35 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 25.6 x 13.8 inch
$10,326
Les poumons fleuris
Evelyne Postic
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 20 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 7.9 inch
$781
Les seins bleus
Evelyne Postic
Fine Art Drawings - 37 x 16 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14.6 x 6.3 inch
$1,005
Cuatro. From The series danza de las naranjas
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 61 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 36 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Nothing to be Ashamed of (Body Positivity) 2
Ogunniyi Oluwatosin
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1 inch
$3,000
On est notre environnement. Série Euskadi
Aline Part
Photography - 67 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$558
On est notre environnement. Série Euskadi 5
Aline Part
Photography - 67 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$558
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 5
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 43.2 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 17 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$4,000
Tissus associatif
Marianne Cresson
Sculpture - 135 x 50 x 11 cm Sculpture - 53.1 x 19.7 x 4.3 inch
$1,786
Penelope and Hans (Immaculate Springs) starring Udo Kier, based on a Polaroid
Stefanie Schneider
Photography - 57 x 56 x 0.1 cm Photography - 22.4 x 22 x 0 inch
$2,567
Pasolini (Immaculate Springs) starring Jacinda Barrett, based on a Polaroid
Stefanie Schneider
Photography - 57 x 56 x 0.1 cm Photography - 22.4 x 22 x 0 inch
$2,567
Black Volta (Mouhoun) - Untitled n° 06
Adrien Bitibaly
Photography - 62.5 x 50 x 4 cm Photography - 24.6 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,233
A few stolen moments
Luca Brandi
Painting - 100 x 80 x 4.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.8 inch
$5,805
Desvelando Gaudí 07
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 53 x 40 cm Photography - 20.9 x 15.7 inch
$670
Desvelando Gaudí 09
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 53 x 40 cm Photography - 20.9 x 15.7 inch
$670
Déséquilibre 3/8
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 54 x 36 x 11 cm Sculpture - 21.3 x 14.2 x 4.3 inch
$7,814
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.