Human body
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Woman and Tropical Landscapes
Jorge Carruana
Painting - 135 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 53.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$5,328
Whimsical dance
Lia Chechelashvili
Painting - 71.1 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm Painting - 28 x 20 x 1 inch
$2,970
Multitude
Lia Chechelashvili
Fine Art Drawings - 76.2 x 55.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 22 x 0.1 inch
$2,995
La fille à la fenêtre
Franck Rozet
Photography - 100 x 50 x 0.6 cm Photography - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,775
Essence masculine murale
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 59 x 47 x 11.5 cm Sculpture - 23.2 x 18.5 x 4.5 inch
$1,310
Desnudas en el sofá
Jordi Turbau
Painting - 81 x 101.6 x 3 cm Painting - 31.9 x 40 x 1.2 inch
$2,886
Dos hermanas y una amiga
Jordi Turbau
Painting - 73 x 92 x 3 cm Painting - 28.7 x 36.2 x 1.2 inch
$2,442
Deconstruccion III
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 76 x 73.5 x 25 cm Sculpture - 29.9 x 28.9 x 9.8 inch
$5,550
Deconstruccion IV
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 60.7 x 51.6 x 32 cm Sculpture - 23.9 x 20.3 x 12.6 inch
$4,884
The impossible move
Laurent Proneur
Painting - 152.4 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 60 x 48 x 2 inch
$37,000
Looking for the exit
Laurent Proneur
Painting - 152.4 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 60 x 48 x 2 inch
$37,000
Art d'être IV
Cécile Baldewyns
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.04 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$888
Ce qu'il restait de ces murs fleuris
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,885
J'ai traversé tant de frontières
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 100 x 80 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 2 inch
$2,941
Au fil des continents
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 100 x 80 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 2 inch
$2,941
Captain’s Daughter
Olena Shtepura
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$2,775
Sculpture de lumière
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 70 x 50 x 0.6 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,665
Annonciation en rose
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 80 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
$943
Pavarti Retrouvailles
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 52 x 24 x 12 cm Sculpture - 20.5 x 9.4 x 4.7 inch
$1,387
Step by step
Luis Miguel Aparisi
Painting - 190.5 x 111.8 x 1.5 cm Painting - 75 x 44 x 0.6 inch
$7,190
Nike, Louvre, Selfportrait.
Chiara Mazzocchi
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$549
Unione, Selfportrait
Chiara Mazzocchi
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$549
Grande Figure assise I
Pierre Yermia
Sculpture - 111 x 24 x 22 cm Sculpture - 43.7 x 9.4 x 8.7 inch
$10,323
Grande Figure Debout II
Pierre Yermia
Sculpture - 140 x 26 x 24 cm Sculpture - 55.1 x 10.2 x 9.4 inch
$12,654
Toute une vie
Emmanuelle Vroelant
Painting - 70 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,110 $999
Graceful Dualité
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Painting - 70 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,775
2023-1109 / Visages et corps expressionnistes - série rouge et noir
Marion Casters
Painting - 30 x 30 x 0.2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$166
2023-1116 / Visages et corps expressionnistes - série rouge et noir
Marion Casters
Painting - 30 x 30 x 0.2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$166
2023-1111 / Visages et corps expressionnistes - série rouge et noir
Marion Casters
Painting - 30 x 30 x 0.2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$166
Nu groupé grand feu rouge
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 31.5 x 33 x 17 cm Sculpture - 12.4 x 13 x 6.7 inch
$1,543
Mathilde étendue
David Martin
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,110
En brazos de Coatlicue
Rosalía Banet
Painting - 73 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 28.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$3,300
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.