Human body
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Flight of Hope, The Happiness Series: Exploring Inner Joy series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£753
I'm sowing seeds
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1 inch
£904
Memories of sweet summer
Natalya Mougenot
Painting - 59.4 x 42 x 0.1 cm Painting - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0 inch
£487
My kitten , Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
£842
Back Silhouette (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
£40,776
Back Silhouette (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
£16,310
The Lady and the Lion (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
£40,776
The Lady and the Lion (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
£16,310
The Lady and the Lion (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 114.3 x 114.3 cm Photography - 45 x 45 inch
£8,155
Breaking bad again
Marcelo Novo
Painting - 50.8 x 40.6 x 1.3 cm Painting - 20 x 16 x 0.5 inch
£1,085
Metaphysical weight (3) forbidden collage (15)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£2,552
Pointe d'antan
Olivier Ansel (la Guêpe)
Sculpture - 58 x 22 x 15 cm Sculpture - 22.8 x 8.7 x 5.9 inch
£780
Futurist Body Dibond
Cédric Brion Studio Clavicule Pics
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
£885
Dreaminess , Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 60 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
£487
My Ray of Hope
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
£664
Domestic yellows III
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26 x 12 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.2 x 4.7 x 0.2 inch
£489
Domestic yellows II
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26 x 14 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.2 x 5.5 x 0.2 inch
£489
Domestic yellows I
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26.5 x 16.5 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.4 x 6.5 x 0.2 inch
£489
Impressionist Ephemerisms N.4
Anna Levesh
Photography - 80 x 60 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 inch
£700
Neoflora Series 2
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
£709
Exploflora Series No.65
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 110 x 206 x 2 cm Painting - 43.3 x 81.1 x 0.8 inch
£1,772
Exploflora Series No.29
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 111.8 x 203.2 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 80 x 2 inch
£1,311
Legs Up Silhouette (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
£40,776
Legs Up Silhouette (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
£16,310
Legs Up Silhouette (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 114.3 x 114.3 cm Photography - 45 x 45 inch
£8,155
Legs in the limo (4)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 142.2 x 182.9 cm Photography - 56 x 72 inch
£20,388
La face cachée
Sylvie Julkowski-Egard
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£886
Jasminum grandiflorum
Ksenia Milicevic
Painting - 100 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
£4,607
À contre-jour
Arnaud Ele
Photography - 118.8 x 84 x 0.1 cm Photography - 46.8 x 33.1 x 0 inch
£1,134
Pavarti Cantatrice
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 35 x 15 x 13 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 5.9 x 5.1 inch
£1,107
Neoflora Series 8
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
£709
Neoflora Series 6
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
£709
Neoflora Series 4
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
£709
Neoflora Series 1
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
£709
Exploflora Series No.28
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 111.8 x 271.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 107 x 2 inch
£1,754
La saison des plaisirs
Ksenia Milicevic
Painting - 130 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 51.2 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
£4,784
The luminous schoolgirls quartet : scarlet elegy of the tragical island
Hiro Ando
Sculpture - 58 x 53 x 18 cm Sculpture - 22.8 x 20.9 x 7.1 inch
£8,860
Tree of Destiny Painting
Artur Soletskyi
Painting - 150 x 150 x 2 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
£4,430
L'Oiseau Damoclès (Étude)
Patricia Dubois
Painting - 45 x 28 x 3 cm Painting - 17.7 x 11 x 1.2 inch
£404 £364
L'œil orangé
Arnaud Ele
Photography - 59.4 x 84.1 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.4 x 33.1 x 0.1 inch
£602
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.