Human body
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Orange Shirt Blue Sheets
Aurélien Buttin
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$561
F0648 - The warrior
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$2,019
#8. From La Piedra Sustituta II Series
José Sierra
Photography - 61 x 37.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 14.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,300
Le Tango Du Feu (Réf. 148)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,076
Man’s hand: From Motion Series
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
But there is one secret
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 120 x 50 x 2.5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 19.7 x 1 inch
$2,805
Renaissance model
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$3,141
Ivan Ojos Abiertos
Salustiano
Fine Art Drawings - 75 x 45 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 17.7 inch
$5,385
Hommage à Newton
Salvador Dali
Sculpture - 35 x 16 x 11 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 6.3 x 4.3 inch
$17,030
Petite penseuse
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 20 x 14.5 x 11 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 5.7 x 4.3 inch
$4,039
Music inside
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 1 inch
$2,805
Les filles de mai
Jean-Louis Mendrisse
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$4,039
De Chlore et de Rosé
Christopher Barraja
Photography - 90 x 60 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 inch
$1,346
Red Rock (Réf. 142)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 60 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$2,076
Nude
Anastasia Kurakina
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 19 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.5 x 0 inch
$763
Nu au fauteuil bleu
Philippe Pasqua
Painting - 200 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 78.7 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$12,341
Le Gladiateur (B/W)
Giorgio de Chirico
Print - 41.2 x 31 x 0.2 cm Print - 16.2 x 12.2 x 0.1 inch
$8,414
Cornette Nude & Hand (Couleur)
Cécile Plaisance
Photography - 57 x 70 cm Photography - 22.4 x 27.6 inch
$9,200
Fuck the rules in Chanel
Cécile Plaisance
Photography - 125 x 95 x 2 cm Photography - 49.2 x 37.4 x 0.8 inch
$17,950
Splashed by the waves of the sea
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 110 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 43.3 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$3,927
Marilyn jewels down the back
Bert Stern
Photography - 48 x 33 cm Photography - 18.9 x 13 inch
$2,794
Nicole and the Red Apple
Reneta Isin
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$19,072
Venice 16th Century - Venetian Courtesan
Reneta Isin
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$21,316
Black and White Beauty
Reneta Isin
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$19,072
Inspiration
Stanislav Bojankov
Fine Art Drawings - 9 x 12 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 3.5 x 4.7 x 0 inch
$95
Engulfment Cartagena 3
Javier Rey
Photography - 165 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 65 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,550
Lecture d'un matin (série liber paper)
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 50 x 30 x 29 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 11.8 x 11.4 inch
$1,683
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.