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

Ils nous regardent - série représentation félins

Irish Stag

1987 Le Tigre et le Sage The Tiger and the Monk

FANTASIA Chevaux 1979 FANTASIA Horses Riders

Impression of koi carps

Half Hedgehog Edition

Mini moi

Audrey

L'Ibis

What doesn't kill you is dead

Fish

T-Rex Cyborg Dinosaur Figure Silver

Stymphalian I

In the crosshair

Tiger

Morpho godarti lachaumei

Eule

Black wolf-fire impact

Untitled

Hipolyte le Morse

Cheval

Triple couronne

Purple Prince

Cuando salga el sol

Lion

Four Birds

Le Redoutable

Doberman

Lion King

Deja Vu, 1.10

Anima I

The fawn

The discourse

Yaoundé

Sun

Cornu Aspersum

Walker

Oursin

Calico Cat

Revelation

Smettila

Inocencia

The Love of Pain (Pink and Silver)

Le chaman taureau

Grenouille

Gorille Dos Argenté

Toro pierre valiente 3/3

La clémentine - Monde animalier et nature

Le roi de la vie

Eléphant Hermès

Horse

Cormoran

Arawn

Cicada Mechanimal

Masque #2

Papillon

Pink uniCAN!

Some Girls 2

Lover’s garden

Le babouin sacré

Seahorse

Tête de Bonobo

Untitled (Royal Officer 2)

Pelican

Print - deux Carpes Koï -III

Brando as "Tragedy"