Human body
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Kodachrome Dream (3)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 144.8 x 182.9 cm Photography - 57 x 72 inch
£20,741
Kodachrome Dream (2)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 121.9 x 152.4 cm Photography - 48 x 60 inch
£12,445
French School - PS 242 Sunflowers from Van Gogh Diving
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 55 x 55 x 3.5 cm Painting - 21.7 x 21.7 x 1.4 inch
£1,432
French School - PS 240 Van Gogh Swimsuit Girl Impressionnist
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 61 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
£1,342
Scythian Sea, Cycle of Being
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 110 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 43.3 x 1 inch
£1,620
PS 238 Le temps des jonquilles
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 61 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
£1,342
Happiness loves silence, Spring serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 90 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£716
Ballet Series V
Miguel Angel Lozano Bonora
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
£707
Ballet Series III
Miguel Angel Lozano Bonora
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.01 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£618
Tell Me Beautiful Untrue Things
The Connor Brothers
Print - 120 x 76 x 0.1 cm Print - 47.2 x 29.9 x 0 inch
£1,879
Figure Painting # 023-2171
Les Thomas
Painting - 122 x 122 x 4 cm Painting - 48 x 48 x 1.6 inch
£7,290
David Murakami
M_ Michael Mc Macfarney
Print - 125 x 60 x 0.3 cm Print - 49.2 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
£7,384
The Goddess of Olympia (4)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,483
The Goddess of Olympia (3)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 121.9 x 182.9 cm Photography - 48 x 72 inch
£20,741
The Goddess of Olympia (2)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£12,445
The Goddess of Olympia (1)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 cm Photography - 30 x 40 inch
£8,297
Dorothy's Night Out (5)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,483
Dorothy's Night Out (4)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 121.9 x 182.9 cm Photography - 48 x 72 inch
£20,741
Dorothy's Night Out (3)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£12,445
Dorothy's Night Out (2)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 cm Photography - 30 x 40 inch
£8,297
The Winds of Change
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£761
You Are My Universe
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£1,351 £1,149
Free Steppe: Taurian Sails
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 60 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£761
Contemplations of the Trypillian Heritage
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 60 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£761 £685
Intertwining Thoughts
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 70 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£761 £685
Harmony Unleashed: Sunflower Whispers
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£984
Sensuelle - série sculpture corps de femme
Chantal Nottrelet
Sculpture - 40 x 27 x 26 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 10.6 x 10.2 inch
£734
Jungle Madonna
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
£671
Milk Shower
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
£671 £638
Ils sont nus
Isabelle De Luca
Fine Art Drawings - 66 x 86 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 33.9 x 0.1 inch
£895
In the Rays of the Sun
Serhii Cherniakovskyi
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1 inch
£2,506
In the rays of the sun
Serhii Cherniakovskyi
Painting - 80 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
£2,058
Entrelacs Flammes monochrome Main sur la hanche série 75 Fusion corporelle
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 75 x 12 x 10 cm Sculpture - 29.5 x 4.7 x 3.9 inch
£3,311
Entrelacs dance bicolore série 74 Fusion corporelle
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 74 x 15 x 10 cm Sculpture - 29.1 x 5.9 x 3.9 inch
£3,311
Lotus
Lia Chechelashvili
Fine Art Drawings - 50.8 x 40.6 x 2.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 16 x 1 inch
£780
Dans les lueurs bleutées
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 61 x 50 x 5 cm Painting - 24 x 19.7 x 2 inch
£1,298
Second Skin: Serie 2
Emili Pisheva Godjirova
Painting - 100 x 80 x 12 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 4.7 inch
£1,298
Second Skin: Serie 3
Emili Pisheva Godjirova
Painting - 100 x 80 x 12 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 4.7 inch
£1,298
Second Skin: Serie 1
Emili Pisheva Godjirova
Painting - 100 x 80 x 12 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 4.7 inch
£1,298
Untitled Women and man
Celso Castro
Painting - 99.1 x 121.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 39 x 48 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
Passionate
Dan Holmqvist
Photography - 100 x 95 x 0.2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 37.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,750
BEARING THE FRUIT (1) FORBIDDEN PRODUCTION (2)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 100 x 100 x 0.1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0 inch
£3,007
The victory of Icarus (2) forbidden production (5)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Painting - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£3,007
Seven pigment mountains (after ugo rondinone) forbidden collage (18)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 60 x 60 x 0.1 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£2,363
Diptyque Se desea a sí mismo sin saberlo / Con la mirada clavada en su propio reflejo
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 80 x 160 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 63 x 0.8 inch
£3,132
Abstraction et féminité
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 47 x 36 x 0.4 cm Painting - 18.5 x 14.2 x 0.2 inch
£582
Corps rêvé réel 2
Anne Procoudine-Gorsky
Painting - 156 x 66 x 1.5 cm Painting - 61.4 x 26 x 0.6 inch
£671
Ballet Series IV
Miguel Angel Lozano Bonora
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.01 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
£618
Ballet Series I
Miguel Angel Lozano Bonora
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.01 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£618
The Modern Thinker (Le Penseur Moderne)
Bruno Cantais
Sculpture - 25 x 11 x 10 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 4.3 x 3.9 inch
£175
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.