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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Categories

Subcategories

Animal

The blue bird (fairy tale)

Panthère Rouge

Vache Watusi

Natural Predators in Captivity

Natural Predators in Captivity

Red Bull

Silver Howling Wolf

Dreams in black and white

Curiosity

Le Cavalier (bronze)

L'Ecureuil combattant

In the forest

In the clearing

Black-tailed godwit with flowers

Seltener Hase

L'écureuil de Mongolie

Le rameau d'or

Seltener Fisch III

Boîte de Petri #12

Crash test, chapeaux

Bee Geometric (Dark)

Animal Behaviorist #5

Collioure

Fou de Bassan

Poésie

Le chant des oiseaux... (Origami 2022)

CAT

The Shimmering Cloud Of Love

Secret des libellules

Re-Build / Re-Think

Rêve de libellule

Magie des libellules

Love in the city

Crash test, Drone

Happy family

BIche en automne

Special Horse

Bride and Groom

Camo Moth

Horse

Amazon Leon (Alba Roda)

Do you see the same thing than me?

Pestacle

Composition

Shiba

Porte Bonheur

Piaf 1

727 Fatman Little Boy

Celestial Elephant

Dragon II

Paysage 609

Sheep With a Donkey - Rare Masterpiece

White sheep

Crocodile

Fleur 19

Fruits

Bird

Paysage 505

Oiseau

Deer

Eagle

Scène de corrida

Oso de Oro

Cloned Schnauzer with water bottle

Cloned Schnauzer with water bottle

Metamorphosis