Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (2024)

At LargeMay 26, 2023Cynthia Close

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (1)

wikimedia commons

Gerrit Dou, Sleeping Dog, 1650.

The term zoomorphism, when applied to art, can mean any object that uses animals as a visual motif. In literature, zoomorphism relates to humans or objects that assume animalistic behaviors or features.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (2)

Louvre, wikimedia commons

Egyptian mummified cat.

Deities in the art of ancient religions were often imagined as mythological creatures sometimes merging animal and human anatomies. Hindu gods and goddesses all have their animal counterparts. The elephant-headed Ganesha, Lord of Obstacles, is perhaps the most widely recognized deity outside of India.

Cats were ubiquitous in ancient Egypt revered as sacred household companions in life and mummifiedto travel with their human owners after death.

Indigenous cultures acknowledge their dependence on animals for daily survival by incorporating their images in artworks and everyday items like this beautifully crafted Eskimobaskettopped with an ivory polar bearand seal handle.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (3)

Honolulu Museum of Art, wikimedia commons

George Omnik(Point Hope, Alaska, Eskimo), Basket with bear and seal carving. Coiled, rattle cover, baleen, whale ivory.

Cultural depictions of dogs in art, usually in the context of hunting, are found in caves and tombs going back to the Bronze Age. As they became domesticated dogs, were brought into the home, as seen in this Pompeiian fresco Endymion and Selene. Dogs have continued to be featured in painting and sculpture throughout art history, becoming a status symbol in the 18th and 19th century.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (4)

wikimedia commons

Master of Color, Endymion and Selene, before 79 AD.

As long as life itself, our evolution as a species has been intimately dependent on our nonhuman counterparts and we have honored that reciprocal relationship by incorporating animal imagery in art, icons, and everyday objects used in our domestic environments. In the early 20th century Dadaist Marcel Duchamp coined the term readymade, turning found objects into art. In 1942, Picasso put a twist on this concept when he turned a discarded bicycle seat into a bull’s head.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (5)

courtesy the artist

Sayaka Ganz, Whirl, 2010.

Japanese sculptor Sayaka Ganztakes household waste, discarded items from thrift stores and turns them into animal forms.Ganz’s current focus is plastics. Motion is her hallmark. Her Shinto animist belief imbues inanimate utensils,forks, knives, and spatulas, with new life. Sculptures of birds, cats, fish, and horses are positioned swimming, swirling, flying, and running elegantly in space.

Creature Comfort: Animals in the House (February 1 - August 23, 2020) at Vermont’s Shelburne Museum explores our historical bonds with animals through the art we make and the objects we live with. Shelburne Chief Curator Kory Rogers has created a cozy, thematically arranged showcase taping into the museum's own extensive collection of art and household artifacts complemented by objects from private collections to highlight the cultural, emotional, aesthetic, and practical bonds between humans and animals.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (6)

courtesy the Shelburne Museum

Creature Comfort: Animals in the Houseinstalled at the Shelburne Museumthrough August 23, 2020.

Upon entering the gallery, we are greeted by a warmly lit mantel flanked by two framed late 18th century Delft tiles, one a cat, the other a dog, suggesting we have just entered an inviting home where both cats and dogs are welcomed by the fireside. A series of black and white photos from the life of Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960), the museum's founder, show her surrounded by and sometimes covered by her bevy of dogs, most often poodles,indicating that although she died in 1960, she would have enthusiastically supported this exhibition.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (7)

courtesy the Shelburne Museum

Electra Havemeyer Webb

Creature Comfortis organized into six animal-themed, color-coordinated areas suggesting rooms in a home. The paintings, rugs, ceramics, toys, cages, wallpaper and furniture featuring dogs, birds, fish, cryptids (myths and monsters), wildlife, and cats generally date from the 18th century to the present. In challenging our notion of domesticated animal imagery, Rogers has chosen objects that take giant aesthetic leaps.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (8)

courtesy the Shelburne Museum

Mute Swan Tureens, ca. 1755.

A gracefully sculptural pair of porcelain Mute Swan Tureens, ca. 1755 (the only known surviving set)stand in sharp contrast to Pair of Guard Beasts: Brooke Shields and Jean Luc-Pi-guard(2016) a surrealist inflected anthropomorphic set of chairs by the Los Angeles-based Haas Brothers known for their irreverent designs straddling functionality and purely inventive form.

Creature Comfort: Animal Art in the Home | Art & Object (9)

courtesy the Shelburne Museum

The Haas Brothers, Pair of Guard Beasts: Brooke Shields and Jean Luc-Pi-guard,2016. Installed in Creature Comfort: Animals in the Houseat the Shelburne Museum.

It is estimated that over 85 million households in the United States currently include at least one animal as a pet with worldwide statistics even higher and growing. We pay tribute to those creatures in our lives with photographs, paintings, sculptures, poetry, and song. And while human activity drives ever more species into extinction, their images, caught in art and objects may be all that remains.

About the Author

Cynthia Close

Cynthia Close holdsaMFA from Boston University, was an instructor in drawing and painting, Dean of Admissions at The Art Institute of Boston, founder of ARTWORKS Consulting, and former executive director/president of Documentary Educational Resources, a film company.She was the inaugural art editor for the literary and art journal Mud Season Review.She now writes about art and culture for several publications.

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animal art

pets

zoomorphism

Shelburne Museum

Haas Brothers

Decorative Arts

contemporary art

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FAQs

What may refer to any object person event or scene that is being depicted in an artwork? ›

The subject of art refers to any person, object, scene, or event described or represented in a work of art.

What object is described as the earliest example of art we have found? ›

Earliest known art is Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) cave art that typically features game animals in a highly simplified form seen from a side-view and drawn with charcoal (with some incised lines) along with some color added through the use of ochres (minerals) of red and yellow.

Which elements of art and principles of design did the artist use in the Catalhoyuk cave painting? ›

Explanation: The elements of art and the principles of design that are primarily utilized to create emphasis and repetition in the Çatalhöyük cave painting are Shapes and Pattern. Shapes refer to the geometric forms used in the painting, such as the repeated lozenges and zigzags.

How does art provide comfort? ›

Studies at Harvard have shown that creative activities like painting can have positive effects on health and well being. Drawing and painting was found to stimulate memories in Dementia patients, and to have a soothing effect on the bodies and minds of those struggling with anxiety, depression, and even cancer.

Which term refers to art that depicts object beings and events from the real world or as if from the real world? ›

Representational art or figurative art represents objects or events in the real world, usually looking easily recognizable. For example, a painting of a cat looks very much like a cat– it's quite obvious what the artist is depicting.

What is the artwork does not represent or depict a person place or thing in the natural world? ›

Non-objective, also called non-representational, art defines art that does not represent or depict any identifiable person, place or thing.

What is twisted perspective when referring to the images of animals? ›

The animals are rendered in what has come to be called "twisted perspective," in which their bodies are depicted in profile while we see the horns from a more frontal viewpoint. The images are sometimes entirely linear—line drawn to define the animal's contour.

What is the name of a found object in art? ›

A found object (a calque from the French objet trouvé), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have a non-art function.

What do cave paintings reveal about the relationship between early humans and animals? ›

These paintings demonstrate that hunting animals was a significant part of early humans' survival. Early humans used to hunt for their food, clothing, and tools. The paintings also show the different techniques used by early humans to catch animals.

What is the oldest example of art? ›

'” At least 45,500 years ago, a human hand had painted the pigs in ochre, making them the oldest known examples of figurative art by at least several thousand years—and, by some standards, the oldest artwork in the world (1).

What often accompany the pictures of animals painted on the cave walls? ›

As far back as roughly 25,000 years ago, Ice Age hunter-gatherers may have jotted down markings to communicate information about the behavior of their prey, a new study finds. These markings include dots, lines and the symbol “Y,” and often accompany images of animals.

Which is perhaps the most impressive collection of Paleolithic animal painting? ›

Hall of Bulls

The Lascaux cave, one of the most impressive in the Paleolithic period, features many different paintings across several chambers.

How does art connect people? ›

Art serves as a powerful bridge, connecting diverse cultures and fostering peace across the globe. As a cultural ambassador, art transcends the everyday barriers of language, politics, and geography. It speaks a universal language that everyone, regardless of background, can understand and appreciate.

How does art make you feel calm? ›

Creating art improves focus and can help facilitate an emotional release from stress, allowing us to find inner peace. It also encourages resourcefulness in problem solving and allows for new ideas to be explored. 3.. Original artwork can make you feel less stressed, more relaxed and calm.

How does art show emotion? ›

Artists create art that conveys to us how they think and feel about things. Artists use different lines, shapes, and colors to express their feelings. Every artist chooses their own colors, lines and shapes that are meaningful for them. Learn more about Expressionism as an artist movement HERE.

What do we call the objects or events depicted in an artwork? ›

Content is what a work of art or rather what it depicts. For representational and abstract work, content begins with the objects or events the work depicts or it's subject matter.

What refers to the object depicted by the artist? ›

Subject. It refers to the object depicted by the artist, it also refers to what the artist expresses or communicates. Content. Reveals the artist's attitude toward his subject.

What is a representation of an object or event called? ›

A mathematical representation of an object or event is a. model.

What is an object person or place used to represent something else? ›

A symbol is anything that hints at something else, usually something abstract, such as an idea or belief. A literary symbol is an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings.

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