Human body
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Elle et lui
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 65 x 30 x 26 cm Sculpture - 25.6 x 11.8 x 10.2 inch
$10,097
Amalgame amoureux
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
Divas, champagne, and bla bla bla #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
Le chant de la Sirène
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Painting - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
$954
Beauté Nocturne
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
De chair et de plumes
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
Dos ensoleillé
Laurent Castellani
Photography - 100 x 70 x 0.01 cm Photography - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$7,292
Meditation
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$325
Tribute to my father
Katha Rossein
Painting - 72 x 55 x 0.5 cm Painting - 28.3 x 21.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,805
Longing in black & white
Katha Rossein
Painting - 72 x 55 x 0.5 cm Painting - 28.3 x 21.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,805
The gift of the handcuffs
Idan Wizen
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$505
Sisyphe II grand format
Patrick Strajnic
Photography - 80 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,456
Transgénose 22
Emmanuel Lesgourgues
Fine Art Drawings - 75 x 100 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$4,039
Transgénose 20
Emmanuel Lesgourgues
Fine Art Drawings - 75 x 100 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$4,039
Transgénose 18
Emmanuel Lesgourgues
Fine Art Drawings - 75 x 100 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$4,039
Summer Vibes Mélanie 3
Hégémon (Hedge) Chaignon
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$954
Summer Vibes Mélanie 1
Hégémon (Hedge) Chaignon
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$954
Transgénose 21
Emmanuel Lesgourgues
Fine Art Drawings - 75 x 100 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$4,039
Homme au masque crâne
Alain Quercia
Sculpture - 47 x 10 x 10 cm Sculpture - 18.5 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
$4,039
Out of eyeshot
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
$2,244 $1,795
9 LegShow bronze
Eric Neveu
Photography - 60 x 120 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 47.2 x 0.1 inch
$2,917
5 LegShow rouge
Eric Neveu
Photography - 70 x 110 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$2,917
Blue bird, Reflection five, Umami
San Kara
Painting - 119 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 46.9 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$8,358
Je l'ai sentie (I felt him)
San Kara
Painting - 119 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 46.9 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$8,358
Lumière 9-22
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 100 x 73 x 0.6 cm Painting - 39.4 x 28.7 x 0.2 inch
$5,609
Abstract Nude 23
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 70 x 110 x 0.6 cm Painting - 27.6 x 43.3 x 0.2 inch
$5,049
Lumière 3-22
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 73 x 100 x 0.2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
$5,609
Night Vision. Barcelona
Dmitry Savchenko
Photography - 150 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$3,814
Female Torso in Grey (Bronze No. 7 of 10)
Joyce Fournier
Sculpture - 11.4 x 7.6 x 6.4 cm Sculpture - 4.5 x 3 x 2.5 inch
$550
Les trois graces drapées de rose
Jean-Luc Celereau de Clercq
Print - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Print - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$505
Golden lady black
Sylvie Bourely
Sculpture - 51 x 16 x 12 cm Sculpture - 20.1 x 6.3 x 4.7 inch
$6,058
Danse 7
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 50 x 75 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0.4 inch
$337
Danse 6
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$337
Danse 4
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$337
Danse 3
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$337
Danse 1
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 50 x 75 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0.4 inch
$337
Flou 3
Gabriel Quirant - Pidet
Photography - 50 x 75 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0.4 inch
$337
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.