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

Le chanteur de cafetières

Rage

Abandoned yard.

Jagoanku

Cormoran

Levrier 3C

Les 3 singes

Salty Extract

Growl

Urban Elephant

Monkey

Masque #2

Le vol des perroquets

Igbo Amaka (Igbo is Beautiful)

Autruche Urbaine

Le monde des chamanes ocre

African bee

Bronze George

Archers - Vase

Couple de mésanges bleues

Les poissons pois

Le messager

The Horse

Naxingiña-natsie

Dickens

Frida

Metamorphosis

Big Love: Majestic Eagle

In a hug

Le homard bleu

Senza titolo

Two Dolphins

Fleeing to Egypt

Bestioles

L'élan

Rosa Sinensis

Bear with me (Black) - Blue Dog

Skater Later Teddy

Apprendre à mourir

Untitled

Conversation

Dermatoglifo Invadente

Spelende honden (Playing dogs)

Holiday

Coral garden 110867

Ancêtre 1

Cheers

Gothic Cow

Papillon 5 - Série insectes réalistes

Sleeping in the snow Part I

Roseate Spoonbill

The party I never went to

Friend

Spiritual Realm 3

Lavender vision

Dancers

Wild Life

Toreando a caballo

Horse (Paris, Hôtel de Ville)

A toi la victoire

Ours Pompon Klein print

Dazzling in the light

Séville

Blossom & Sky (together)

Untitled

Doggy dog