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

Sacré Poulette

Panthère

Butterfly

Wanker

Togetherness

Wizard by the Water

Dirty Liberty

Slapshot

Square Dance

Hydrangea Bear

Cute Killer

Streetlife

Coeur argenté

Cheval en galop gaalctique

Cat

Les Fauves

Woman with a white cat

Scalaire

Ready to start again (1)

Eagle

This Little light of Mine

Ancient Mariner (large hand signed giclee on canvas)

Malvern Hills

Le passeur et l'oiseau

Naissance éléphanteau

Dragonfish

Asteroid RS (framed hand finished screen print)

The Crow

Oeuvre N°1202

Dessine moi un serpent

Ecureuil Squirrel 1987 KENJI BANLIEUE BANLIEUE

Poissons, citron et cuivre

Qui a cassé le vase?

Hibou

Dragon de Komodo

Las Gallinas

Papillon Enchanté

Ours polaire

Sauveteuses

Phoenix

Débit de poissons

Pantomime horse

I saw a horse

Ours rouge

Maneki neko on the wall 1

Bird

Winter Landscape with Sheep

Shattered butterfly

Untitled

Les grives

Arfalla

Louis

Bearbrick Orange Gold

Amazon SOS

Love Nation

Le loup

Sunshine Lollypops

Crocodile Gold

La légende du colibri rose dégradé

Portrait of leopard

Cornucopia

Toro Fuego

Hippo

Ours Pompon Klein

Cat is Very Smart

Pez Plateado