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

Tendre un perchoir 10

Tendre un perchoir 9

Perspective d'animal

Kitty

Duck

Série grands singes - 2/5

Bear Hug

Petite souris à la feuille d'or

Petite souris à la feuille d'argent

Antilope Kobo

Autoportrait aux chiens

Pénurie

Pitchou cute purple rain

Salvamento

Lactancia a la vela

Hommage à Pompon

Sans titre

Antilope

Orange T-Rex

Just The Way You Are (Bat)

Just The Way You Are (Triceratops)

Sweet King Cobra

Sweet Opossum

Stand Tall

Sheena Is A Pizza Rocker

Tape Hiss

Hope Dog

Sans titre

Watermelon Daydreams

Raccoon Shine

Hippohome

Untitled

Gorille

Evening Stroll

Camel Hill

St Leger Retro Revival

Stingray fish

Hennessy

Epilogue

La Mouche - The Fly

Last Supper at Penscynor

La chat sur le divan

Le chat blanc

Victoria Horkan

The Wish Granter

Cynocéphale

Tigre

La fleur et l’oiseau

Le doux félin de l’été

Femme diurne

Soleil cou coupé II

Untitled

Petite Callipyge

Reciprocity 2

The Lion Queen

Bird chante

Bird 13

Bird 12

Bird 11

Bird 9

Bird 8

Bird 7

Bird qui fait la sièste

Bird qui regarde

Bird qui sourit II

Bird qui attend