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

Horses on Abstract Background

Oiseleuse aux oreilles grises

Walker

Confu$ious

Piranja

Un rêve éveillé

Chouette assise

Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow - River Phoenix

Listen to your heart

Azure Soul

CHIPU (TALENT)

The black prince

Series Snails whit French nails 1- Silk, wire, plastic, paint, latex, wood and clay

Dachshund

Spring

Men of little faith

Study

Migrations

Deer

Zébre

Adam et Eve chassés du Paradis

Sans titre

Arawn

Poisson Ailé

Owl

La mort me va si bien !

Butterfly

Panda aurore boreal

Le chaman taureau

Insects' Secrets 6

I see foxes in the way home

Eulenmann - L’homme-hibou

Ursus Aerus Major

Gumdrop

Equus colore

Taureau

Tigre de Java

Soother

Sleeping in the snow Part I

Friend

Astra Guernica

Home is where the hea(r)t is

French cochon

Sour cherries in my garden

Untitled

Plein la crinière

Forbidden fruit

Perruche soleil

Poltrona n° 111221

18 vaches Milka roses

Bull and The Bird

Le Buffle

Silent commuter

The Sorrel

Risciò

Cicada Mechanimal

Espíritu sanador

La mer et l'homme

Over like VI

Le Jaguar

You know, i can be blue, or not...

Beak2beak

Les mantes religieuses

Sketch of Cat

Izanami

Wild gorille 1255