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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Categories

Subcategories

Animal

Origami

Les poissons

Monopoloup II

Anital

Le Hibou vert

Leona

D.O.G. VI

HOPE (giclée)

Eye To Eye

Les chevaux de bois

Hidden place

Bucolic Scene

Le Meneur d'ombres

Mon chat

Mistral

Nature

Butterfly

Jour de fête

Sardina (Limited Edition of 8)

Tinta

Pigeon

Horses

1986 Rhinocéros

The Tiger

Balade (version bleue)

Sauvage innocence

L'Original Jaune

Promenade Matinale

Terra Incognita - Le Grand Canyon

Console Clairière

Bull of valor

Como una mariposa

Sergei Sviatchenko - Capacity For Conjuring Illusion 8

L'envol

Galloping Horses

Sketch for the Parliament Hall 'Thanatos and the Enigma'

Fragment #4

California Dreaming 8/2AP

Chevaux rouge et blanc

Yin Yang

Koons me

Le musée amusant

Taurus III

Happy Toys

Le tigre

Ladybug after the rain

Chevaux blancs

Owlets

Km 0 I-IV

Conigli arcobaleno

Vallée d'Aoste

Theo Hudson Nangala

Pigeon-Monstera

Big fish II

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

Audrey et Eléphants

Brainpower II, III and I. Triptych

Coq

Gorille assis

Conférence

Cavalcade

Kindred souls

Big City Cat Blue Dean

Set the moon on fire until it becomes the sun

La temptació

Legende de la mer