Do you appreciate animals? Historically we have embraced our relationship with animals. These furry beings have always been close to us, as we not only share the planet and co-exist with them but we consider them as life long friends. As art directly depicts what artists see in their daily lives, many artists focus on this aspect of having animals in their lives.
Animals have been both muses and companions for artists, from ancient depictions of wild cows and deer in early cave paintings, through to the most simple line drawing of a pet Dachshund called Lump, by Pablo Picasso (1957). These works reveal the artists’ true lives — where their private and professional lives meet. The reason dogs feature across Picasso's work was exactly because these furry friends were constant companions throughout his life too — as Picasso once said: "Lump, he's not a dog, he's not a little man, he's somebody else." Picasso owned many breeds over the years, including terriers, poodles, a Boxer, a Great Pyrenees, a German Shepherd and Afghan Hounds. The best known of his pet dogs is Lump the dachshund.
Various artists have been inspired by animals whether they were their pets or not. Andy Warhol is also known for working with different kinds of animals. Warhol produced a Dogs and Cats series of silk screened paintings of pet cats and dogs requested by an art collector who wanted a pop art portrait of their dog (1976). As a cat person, he enjoyed the whole process and as the pieces turned out so well - loved and celebrated even till today - that Warhol continued to create more pop pet portraits. In 1983 Warhol was commissioned by his friend and also publisher Ron Feldman to create a series of ten endangered species to raise environmental consciousness. Warhol called the series “animals in makeup.”
Mexican modern artist Frida Kahlo was also undeniably inspired by animals. Almost half of the paintings she created focus on animals– and many of them were her own pets. As Kahlo experienced a horrific bus accident at the age of 18, the countless operations led her to live with health problems her entire life. Being unable to have her very own family, she started to see her pets as her real ‘children.’ Her love for pets exceeds the standard norm - she owned several exotic pets: a fawn, an eagle, parakeets, macaws, hens, sparrows, and Xoloitzcuintles (Mexican hairless dogs), and these beautiful animals naturally became her muses and inspiration.
Animals featured in modern art shows how these creatures are close with human lives and at the same time this theme can challenge ideas of identity, otherness, and civilization by explaining the role animals have occupied in our cultural development and illustrating their presence in the visual arts today. It is important for us audiences to understand the current embrace of animals as subjects. Through artists' engagement with 'the animal' and animals themselves, a mirror in which to see our own struggles with our relationships with the non-human world.