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

Goldfish

Corset, Portrait of an Equestrienne

Winter

Butxaca I

1952 Animaux surréalistes Fantastic Surrealistic World

Deckchair (Red) - Open Edition

Miracle bid

Da Vinci's Horse galloping

Rivage III

Nature's Wide and Common Sky

Hermanas

Cher Ami, oiseau fantastique ! 3

Whispers

Rallumer la forêt

La ferme

Climb a Dream

The Swallow's Dance

Butch Chanel: John, Robert and Michael, NYC

Huntress

Magnolias

Lecture

The Cat

Tiger #27

Beauty of nature

Between beak and claws

Cambodge, Prey Nup, Bantei Prey, jeune fille

Eclosion des fleurs série animal et botanique

Commissionaire's dog

Pink Horse

Dedicated to Botticelli 4

Whimsical Cat Surrealist Artwork

Water

Untitled

Horses

Travelers

Raven's Pueblo

Nautilus

Ville déserte près de la centrale les oiseaux déserte

Hot and Cold

Travel

Pájaros de otro mundo

Tell me who your friends are...

Tango, aquagravure originale

One Woman, One Dog

Animalism 1

Happy Feeling Chas

Des araignées dans le grenier

Chipie

Cheval ténébreux

Plumpy Balloons

Untitled

Le cirque

Bye Bye Blackbirdds

Les p'tits Canailloux - Glace rouge

Universal whale

Un battement d’aile

Bulls

Corrida

Baleak mini 1/8

Poissons volants

Geese and universe

Sparrows Have Arrived

Panthère cristal (1)

Untitled

No One Rides for Free

Chromo 1