Animal

Animals are often featured in news, sometimes in heartwarming tales of human and animal companionship and other times in heartbreaking stories of illegal trade and endangered species. Animals are even present in social sciences, especially thank to ethology (behavioural sciences of animals in their natural habitat). They have fascinated philosophers from Antiquity all the way through to today and they are even present in the medical realm, as the benefits of animal-assisted therapies have been scientifically proven.

The relationship between humans and animals is also taken into account in the politics, most notably when debating topics related to ecology, the protection of ecosystems and sustainable development. Thus, animals might be seen as a crucial indicator of humanity's concerns.

As well in these many sectors, animals are also very much present in the arts. A number of art museums have decided exhibitions to animals including the Cluny Museum in Paris and MoMA PS1 in New York. Whether simply a humble spectator in an 18th century painting or the central subject of a Courbet painting, animals are present throughout the history of art. From symbolic, to esthetic, to abstract, to animal drawings meant to simply record their appearance...all these representations have played a role in influencing artists and also how we characterise and think of individual animals.

Each civilisation has represented the animal on multiples supports (mosaics, metal, stone, bones, etc.) as seen on the Nerja cave wall paintings in Andalusia discovered in 1925. Animal iconography has had multiple purposes, varying according to the era and place. Bats, for example, are often used to represent death, fear or superstition in Western art, whereas the Chinese see them as a sign of happiness. The omnipresence of animals within cultures across the globe is probably down to the similarities between men and animal, a source of both fascination and fear.

In this selection, Artsper helps you to discover the beauty of the animal kingdom, its diversity, strength and fragility. Artists depict animals in a huge range of mediums: sculpture, painting, photographs, and drawings. Contemporary artists bring an original and poetic vision to their representations of the animals with whom we share our world.

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Animal

California Dreaming 8/2AP

Chevaux rouge et blanc

Yin Yang

L'envol

Le musée amusant

Happy Toys

Ladybug after the rain

Koons me

Km 0 I-IV

Conigli arcobaleno

Vallée d'Aoste

Monopoloup II

Chevaux blancs

Theo Hudson Nangala

Big fish II

Coq

Pigeon-Monstera

-You silly, who are you? Why did you come here? -my name is a Sea!

Audrey et Eléphants

Brainpower II, III and I. Triptych

Hidden place

Gorille assis

Conférence

Cavalcade

Kindred souls

Big City Cat Blue Dean

La temptació

Legende de la mer

Horseracing Steplee Auteuil Pilarski colors

Comment vas-tu mon poussin ?

Bad Boy 11

Goodmorning

Vache couchée I

Eléphantasme organique

Big Balloon Ganesha

VI 04-22

Biolumin Birds

Les flamants roses

Requiem IV

Il libro delle mie favole preferite

Qui aurait cru cuire ?

Sledding Buddies

Boat

La Renaissance (poudre de diamant)

The rural life in Haiti

Transcoder - The Secret about Curves

Il Giorno di Leda

Falconer

Ours au poisson

De Schaduwwolf

Lion d'Afrique

Gima gunn

Orques, Archipel Crozet / Paris Match

Faces

Sodium II

The Little Pig

Fish tea

Est-ce que l’art a le pouvoir de changer les sentiments ?

Homme et cheval

Under Moonlight

Unheimliche

Homard

À cache-cache

Avec Maman

Inspecteur Badass

L'étranger