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

Paysage 800

Sheep

Sheep

Le cheval blanc

Loup hurlant noir mat (120 cm)

Lion

Wild Kong blanc (37 cm)

L'envolée...

Mélodie pour deux chatons et piano

Sheep with Valley of sadness

Flying hawk

Love blue cat

Wild Kong tag, Marylin

My ball

Bear and cub

Young girl

Acrobati

My Bear

Équilibre d'éléphants

Mini black bulldog

Poissons

Wild Kong spirit (Blue edition)

September 13, cows at the Mont Gerbier de Jonc

Kong Origin

Trois

Red cat

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Aduke and Her Pet - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Painting, Women, Car

Liberté… (Origami)

Mes trois garnements

Le jeu de la corde / Tug of war

The Fish Race

Three bear cubs

My seahorse

Magic girl, no V/VIII

Bas Relief Kong Red

Moon Illusion

Fly With Me

A Magical Tea Time With Alice

Flamingo mood

Wild

Heron no. 25

Girl with horse

Birds (1)

Taureau Lamborghini

Les chevaux de mes rêves galopent...

Being is love / 414

Untitled

Le chat bleu

Koi anticipation XI

Azure Adornment

Chaman Oiseau

Great learning version 2

Elephant and his little girl

Night lights

Date of Lovers

Sans titre

Etrangers

Le livre

Danseuse aux colombes

Chouette d'Or

Black bird

M.Chat

M.Chat

Toucan

M.Chat