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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Dessin / Sans titre
Kevin-Ademola Sangosanya
Fine Art Drawings - 60 x 80 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.6 x 31.5 inch
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Swallows in Flight No. 45
Elizabeth Becker
Painting - 40.6 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 16 x 20 x 2 inch
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223 Butterfly Spinpainting with Diamond Dust
Punk Me Tender
Painting - 76.2 x 76.2 x 5 cm Painting - 30 x 30 x 2 inch
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Illustration cover of a book from the ECO series 1
Tekla Aleksieva
Painting - 30 x 54 x 0.2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 21.3 x 0.1 inch
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Beyond the rain
Eleonora Taranova
Painting - 70 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
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Split milk (Original)
Brady Willmott
Painting - 50.8 x 40.6 x 2.54 cm Painting - 20 x 16 x 1 inch
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Vegas pop art Black Chanel
Christophe Comerro
Sculpture - 41 x 30 x 45 cm Sculpture - 16.1 x 11.8 x 17.7 inch
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Let’s Go to My Place, I’ll Show You My Apartment… Would You Like Some Wine?
Inga Makarova
Painting - 40 x 40 x 4 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
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The empresses - Taytu Betul
Damien Hirst
Print - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Print - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
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Bronx Zoo from the New York, New York Portfolio
Larry Rivers
Print - 66 x 86.4 x 0.3 cm Print - 26 x 34 x 0.1 inch
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Grace and power under the pressure (blue)
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Print - 45.7 x 61 cm Print - 18 x 24 inch
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Grace and power under the pressure (green)
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Print - 45.7 x 61 cm Print - 18 x 24 inch
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Le refuge aux papayers
Stéphane Foucaud
Painting - 110 x 107.5 x 4 cm Painting - 43.3 x 42.3 x 1.6 inch
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Dissimulation VI
Cécile Duchêne-Malissin
Painting - 100 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
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Kong Christmas (Red edition)
Richard Orlinski
Design - 19 x 13.5 x 6 cm Design - 7.5 x 5.3 x 2.4 inch
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T-Rex spirit (Red edition)
Richard Orlinski
Design - 14.5 x 10 x 4 cm Design - 5.7 x 3.9 x 1.6 inch
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They Don’t Bite (Brown)
Inga Makarova
Painting - 120 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
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Croyance
Hom Nguyen
Fine Art Drawings - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
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Being is love / 372
Christine Zanella
Painting - 146 x 64 x 0.2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 25.2 x 0.1 inch
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Cast on the dog by Jeff
Giuseppe Fortunato
Sculpture - 25 x 23 x 9 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 9.1 x 3.5 inch
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Ane et cheval en Provence
Yves Brayer
Painting - 37 x 28 x 1 cm Painting - 14.6 x 11 x 0.4 inch
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Notre lion d'or !
Noël Granger
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 8.3 inch
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Melody - Meadow - Music
Trayko Popov
Painting - 35 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 13.8 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
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