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

Panthère sautant sur le rocher

Levitate

Lupus

A Mysterious Horse - A tribute to the artist Uri Reisman

L'entrée en scène

Canard

Chien béat sur nickel 59

Gift 3

Elephants...in a colorful world

Silent Sheep, Ancient Stone

Very Good Day

Piaf Doré satin

Wrapped in Kindness

Untitled

Ensemble

Too much cat

M. Chat au Mont Saint-Michel

Héron cendré

Petits polissons

Tague la Lune

Ambition

Grindstone 3

Colorful Sheep

Long-lived masterpiece

Colorful Sheep

Black Eye Patch 1000%

Big Quickly

Jungle Happiness

Innocent Sheep

Blue Sheep

Colorful Herd

Dragon

Mountain road

Félix #3

Sheep

Perroquet

Dobermann

Léopard

Cheval Pegase au trot

Skate Chanoir, Dégradation Tropicale

Lion

Minor

Le bison

Banana Jungle

Strange Fish 2

Carte des Gorges du Tarn et de la Provence

Éloigne toi

Strange Fish

Sérigraphie - Chanoir x Grems

Royal Selangor Arabesque Golden 400%

Skate édition dégradé de rose à jaune

Lion king, I'm the big boss

Ferrari turtle

My French Bulldog loves Chanel and Dom Pérignon

Bride and Groom

Cien Caballos sueltos

El pastor ceno pescao

Caballo de San Bartolome

Pesce

We Are The Square Jocular Clan 3

Tête de cheval impressionniste

Dragon, le 5 ème

Coq

Panda Cubs Panda Cubs

Piaf Pop Love S

Dog Chanel