Human body
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Sans titre
Michel Lablais
Fine Art Drawings - 34.3 x 27.2 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.5 x 10.7 x 0.2 inch
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Nun blum - Hand
Cécile Plaisance
Photography - 70 x 57 x 2 cm Photography - 27.6 x 22.4 x 0.8 inch
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Homme au Repos
Françoise Leblanc
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
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Plénitude marine
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 62 x 44 x 36 cm Sculpture - 24.4 x 17.3 x 14.2 inch
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Les boules sablé.e.s n°2
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
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Les boules sablé.e.s n°1
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
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Feuille 02
François Delebecque
Photography - 20.7 x 20.7 x 0.1 cm Photography - 8.1 x 8.1 x 0 inch
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Alanguie
François Delebecque
Photography - 20.7 x 20.7 x 0.1 cm Photography - 8.1 x 8.1 x 0 inch
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L'enlèvement des Sabines (vs Mona Lisa)
Paxal
Painting - 48 x 40 x 1 cm Painting - 18.9 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Le plongeon - Femme qui nage sous l'eau
Nicolas Pizy
Painting - 25 x 25 x 0.3 cm Painting - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.1 inch
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Nude in red hat
Suthamma (Ta) Byrne
Painting - 150 x 200 x 4 cm Painting - 59.1 x 78.7 x 1.6 inch
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Maya always knows how to be a honey girl
Fenx
Sculpture - 100 x 48 x 28 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 18.9 x 11 inch
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Imaginer à nouveau l'amour
Emilie Teillaud
Painting - 73 x 116 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 45.7 x 0.8 inch
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Jugement
Laetitia Allal
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
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Tête rouge
Laetitia Allal
Fine Art Drawings - 41.5 x 29.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.3 x 11.6 x 0 inch
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Ne plus savoir où aller (1)
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 150 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
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Les colonnes n°1
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0 inch
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Lady in blue performing yoga
Suthamma (Ta) Byrne
Painting - 130 x 180 x 4 cm Painting - 51.2 x 70.9 x 1.6 inch
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Vela en Bronze
Tiziano Sculpteur
Sculpture - 44 x 26 x 18 cm Sculpture - 17.3 x 10.2 x 7.1 inch
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N°623 - Pin Up Collection
Mehdi Mirbagheri
Photography - 100 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
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Love on the brain
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Painting - 120 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
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L'intemporelle Joconde
Joël Moens
Photography - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
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S'aimer sous les roses
Emilie Teillaud
Painting - 130 x 160 x 4 cm Painting - 51.2 x 63 x 1.6 inch
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Nude
Jean-Raymond Delpech
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
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Once of a lifetime- bird on the shoulder
Stavri Kalinov
Painting - 75 x 55 x 0.2 cm Painting - 29.5 x 21.7 x 0.1 inch
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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.