Human body
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Breaking ties, sinking ship.
Gabrielle Rul
Painting - 42.5 x 41.5 x 1 cm Painting - 16.7 x 16.3 x 0.4 inch
$781
Romances muettes (Album complet)
Olivier O. Olivier
Print - 65 x 47 cm Print - 25.6 x 18.5 inch
$1,786
La fille aux ballons
Pierre Boillon
Photography - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,049
Jeanne d'Arc
Pierre Boillon
Photography - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,049
Estatuas doradas
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 80 x 60 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
$1,005
Pensamientos
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 120 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
$1,563
Reclamo anónimo
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 80 x 40 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,116
Amor entrañable
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 81 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.9 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,116
240 - Suite Henner
Jacques Resch
Painting - 30 x 26.5 x 0.5 cm Painting - 11.8 x 10.4 x 0.2 inch
$558
I turned off the light
Joann Côté
Painting - 99.1 x 63.5 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39 x 25 x 2 inch
$2,500
Défense de stationner
Joann Côté
Painting - 111.8 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 60 x 2 inch
$4,000
Dark and luminous self portrait
Joann Côté
Painting - 132.1 x 111.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 52 x 44 x 2 inch
$3,750
Less is more...Really?
Joann Côté
Painting - 177.8 x 101.6 x 5.1 cm Painting - 70 x 40 x 2 inch
$5,500
I love you the way you are
Joann Côté
Painting - 99.1 x 63.5 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39 x 25 x 2 inch
$2,500
I still don't know how to love
Joann Côté
Painting - 106.7 x 134.6 x 5.1 cm Painting - 42 x 53 x 2 inch
$3,550
We Are Particles (part 2)
Rob Woodcox
Photography - 101.6 x 76.2 cm Photography - 40 x 30 inch
$2,850
Whispers of midnight
Zakhar Shevchuk
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 28 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 11 x 0 inch
$335
Ink album (Nude posing)
Zakhar Shevchuk
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$335
Sentida-1-99
Luis Miguel Valdes
Fine Art Drawings - 35.1 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.8 x 11.8 inch
$600
Collage I
Luis Miguel Valdes
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 35.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 13.8 inch
$500
TV II. From the series Ser Cosa
Rodrigo Etem
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
La desnudez del multiverso
Josep Garcia Marsal
Painting - 61 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
$1,674
Portales cuánticos
Josep Garcia Marsal
Painting - 65 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
$1,786
N° 633 L'impudique 1
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 47 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 18.5 x 0.1 inch
$223
N° 615 D'abord, la douceur.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 48 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 18.9 x 0.1 inch
$246
N° 614 ange bleu
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 47 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 18.5 x 0.1 inch
$223
Sur le fleuve des canards sauvages
Elia Pagliarino
Painting - 101 x 76 x 2 cm Painting - 39.8 x 29.9 x 0.8 inch
$3,572
On est notre environnement (Valerie Galice)
Aline Part
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$670
Laisse de mer
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$502
Blooming pleasure
Kristina Malashchenko
Painting - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Painting - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$3,126
Le Petit Poucet
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$167
Supplique du séant n°3
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$167
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.