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

Untitled 1

Leaping Panther

A rush of wind trought the leaves

Gallopp VA

Colombe blanche White Dove

Eggsplosion

Temps d'orage

The Keeper

"Polka Dots Rabbit" Tribute to Yayoi Kusama

Tug

The jewel of the river

Starry Night

Moonlight bath

Eagle I

Storm

Monsieur le Jour, Madame la Nuit

Une langue qui fait mouche

Scène de genre avec paysans, vaches et moutons

Broken princess

Gold Jelly

Orange Butterflies

Colour Lion

Untitled

Gardien de chevaux 1987 Horses Guardian

Go-between

La fée clochette

Taureau Noir

Under the neck - pologame - polo - Hermès - Ralph Lauren - chevaux - horses

Bird og Hapiness

My Beloved Business

Colombe diamant

Scie-lames

Buffle noir

Coupling in Istropolis

Trunklestiltskins out and about

Girl with a Cat

Purple Love Bird

Water keeper

Sugar free III

Thin ice

Two dogs

Helios II

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Végetaniamals 15

Thread of Companionship

Lost But Not Least

Mickey Mouse

Ra’ah (Shepherd)

King Kong Balls Blanc

Tourist Penguino

Sans titre

Boule à neige

Miami

Touro Preto

Lampyris Noctiluca

Clown and Flower

Sticking to my post

The Pfizer Effect

Stay

Birds

La Chasse au Tigre (Ginestet-Pouillon 641)

One Woman, One Dog

Girl drinking an egg

News Feed

Singe au cigare

Rhinoceros