Human Body Art Essay

The human body has been a mainstay in the art world and its use spans across time and most ever culture. The human form has been used to tell stories, communicate cultural values, and reflect religious beliefs. It can be used to show emotion like happiness, sadness, despair and status such as power, importance, or poverty. The artist may use a realistic form or something morphed or stylistic based on what he is trying to convey to his audience. Whatever the purpose may be, the use of the human form is common, but the way it is depicted differs greatly across artists, races, cultures and time. In evaluating four specific works of art found in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a variety of different approaches to the use of the human …show more content…
These values are still very prevalent in today’s society. Basic human nature really hasn’t changed over the years. Body image and the importance on other’s perception continue to be major issues in 21st century civilization. The main difference is with how information gets disseminated to people. In the past, it was through whispers in the gym or parlors. Now it is through social media, magazines and television.
Interestingly, society today has spoken out again the fashion industry for “photo-shopping” pictures to make famous people look more youthful and slim. Isn’t that essentially what the artists of the past did but with hammers and chisels instead of a computer. We have no idea of what the people actually looked like whose likeness was used to create the famous statues of the past.
Body imagery has also changed from indirect depictions such as paintings and sculpture to true depictions with pictures and video. And while the naked body was once accepted, praised and put on display in Greek and Roman society, it is considered a taboo to show real life photos of naked people in public. You don’t see naked men at the local gym in this