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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Subcategories

Animal

The Game

Horse Girl

Othom

Official letter

Collective letter

Presidential office

Pension Fund

Want I

Want III

Want IV

What’s Up

Jason des Dieux

The peacocks secret

Penguins painting - March of the penguins

Déli cat

Stieglitz

Les 4 cavaliers de l’apocalypse

Funerale per una formica

Il cavaliere matto

L'ocone tra i barattoli

The Land of The Rising Sun

Curious (Yellow)

Cosmic Dogs

Belka & Strelka

Cochon diplômé

Cochon Punk

Cochon Rasta

Reading Together Sky & Misty SIII

Fly

Impression #3

Magic Cloud - mini

La rencontre

Get Lucky

Jeune Cerf au galop

Fearless

Bird

Whale tail in sunset

No place to land

Sweet Blue Bird !

Sweet Bird !

Un câlin de mon Ourson !

Jellyfish

Deux Carpes Koï - III

Two Carpes Koï

Nos 2 Mésanges bleus

Hens

Are You OK?

Cat

Beautiful England

My Bee

Fancy Forest

Flight geometry

On a leash

Cercle n°1

Aigle Royal

Tinker, Chef, Fish

Louis

Murciélago

Le toucan méfiant

Pénurie

Ré Star 1

Love Donald, Love Blanche

Will you marry me?

Kong spirit (Pink Edition)

March hare 5/5

March hare 4/5