BOOK:BODY OF ART, Phaidon Publications

This book presents the ways, provocative in many cases, that the artists have represented, scrutinized and utilized the body over centuries. Examines art through that most accessible and relatable lens: the human body. Over 400 artists featured, works range from 11,000 BC hand stencils in Argentine caves to videos and performances by contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovic, Joan Jonas and Bruce Nauman.

By Efi Michalarou

The Contents and Sections of the book are: Beauty, Identity, Power, Religion & Belief, Sex & Gender, Emotion Embodied, The Body’s Limits, Bodies & Space, The Abject Body, The Absent Body. It is a very good work tool, as presents, states and compares artists from different periods of the art history, and the heterogeneous and different expressive media they are using. The book extends from painting and sculpture to performance, video art and photography. Featured artists include: Marina Abramovic, Nobuyoshi Araki, Francis Bacon, Balthus, Max Beckmann, Vanessa Beecroft, Lynda Benglis, Joseph Beuys, Pierre Bonnard, Sandro Botticelli, Louise Bourgeois, Caravaggio, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Chuck Close, Gustave Courbet, John Currin, Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dalí, Edgar Degas, Eugene Delacroix, Marcel Duchamp, Marlene Dumas, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Lucian Freud, Paul Gauguin, Alberto Giacometti, Giotto, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Francisco Goya, Damien Hirst, Hokusai, Joan Jonas, Frida Kahlo, Yves Klein, Gustav Klimt, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Sarah Lucas, Renee Magritte, Édouard Manet, Sally Mann, Henri Matisse, Michelangelo, Bruce Nauman, Shirin Neshat, Yoko Ono, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Man Ray, Rembrandt, Pipilotti Rist, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Egon Schiele, Cindy Sherman, Vincent van Gogh, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol.