By featuring one animal, rather than many, the artist provides a powerful creative focus. This in turn enables us to see animal images as art. The pictures below exemplify both realistic and impressionistic renderings. If you want to learn about them and their artists, continue reading!

 Activity: Find a poem to illustrate each of the pictures below.

“Each animal possesses its own artistic energy and    presence.”

 Luis Jimenez, Alligator Study, 1993, polychrome lithograph from two stones, 25 inches x 70 inches

Luis Jimenez makes paintings, drawings, prints and large-scale sculptures usually featuring "western art" themes using very contemporary materials. His animals are generally made from metal-fleck fiberglass, cast from a mold and painted with an airbrush. The animals usually have bright red light bulbs for eyes. Over the years, the Amarillo Museum of Art has shown Progress II, Electric Sunset and Howl, as well as numerous drawings, paintings, prints and constructions.

This lithograph is a study of a fountain for the city of El Paso, Texas. For many years, El Paso had a public park and pond with live alligators. Eventually, the alligators were removed to protect them from the human beings who frequented the park. As a substitute, famed Texas sculptor Luis Jimenez was commissioned to design and build a fountain composed of giant alligators.

Lithography means "drawing on stone," which describes the process accurately. The artist draws and paints on a flat stone using a grease-based crayon or liquid which repels water. The stone is chemically treated and covered with water. When the printing ink is rolled on, it only sticks to the drawing area (which repels water). Paper is placed on the stone and run through the press. Each different color (in this case blue, green, and black) requires a different stone and ink.

 Alligator Study is a very rare example of a lithograph being so large that it is drawn and printed from two stones side by side, a complex and difficult process. It was printed in an edition of 30. That means only 30 lithographs were made, of which this is #12. The lithographs were made by master printers at the Lawrence Lithography Workshop in Lawrence, Kansas, under the supervision of the artist.

 Luis Jimenez, Mustang, 1994, color lithograph, 39 1/4 inches x 29 1/2 inches

Following the creation of this color lithograph, "Mustang" was also executed as a fiberglass sculpture. The four color image was drawn on a stone and three aluminum plates and was printed in an edition of 40.

Mustang (lithograph and sculpture) is an excellent example of the way in which Luis Jimenez takes traditional western themes and makes them his own with a combination of personal style and 20th century technology. Notice how the lithograph clearly indicates the round, red light bulbs that are used for the animal's eyes.

Franz Marc, Yellow Cow, 20th century,      oil on canvas, Germany

In the early days of what we call "modern art," there was a group of artists who called themselves "The Blue Rider. " The name of the group came from Franz Marc, who came to specialize in pictures of animals. All the members of the group were interested in using vivid colors to express emotion and strong feelings. The Yellow Cow is an excellent example of this style, which later led to the art movement called Expressionism.

"Certain animals are depicted as spiritual or magical.”

Fig. 4

Artist Unknown, Horse with Arrows, 17,000 B.C., prehistoric cave painting

Animal scenes were among the very first subjects of art used by human beings, and certainly the first "realistic" paintings. They have been discovered on cave walls in France and Spain, and were probably made for ritual, rather than interior, decoration.

It is likely that images, such as the one above, were designed to guarantee success in the hunt. Although some have cast doubt that the diagonal forms "flying" at the horse are arrows or spears, they certainly seem more like arrows than bushes. The fact that realistic paintings of human beings do not accompany the animals lends belief to the theory that the images were intended to exercise magical power over the animals.

When these paintings were first discovered, people thought they were not authentic. It was hard to believe that "cave men" could execute such delicate and realistic images. Notice, in particular, the grace with which the artist suggests the depth and separation of the horse’s legs.  This sort of flowing perspective has similarities to classic Chinese painting. It is exciting to think that, with paintings this old, the earliest painters had no examples but their own vision and imagination.

Artist unknown, Dancing Ganesha (Nritya Gavapati), 18th century, Bronze, South India

Ganesha is one of the most popular gods in the Hindu religion. As the "Lord of Obstacles," he is prayed to by those beginning a new venture, and is said to remove obstacles in the way of your success--unless, of course, you fail to please him. There are many variations to the story of Ganesha's elephant head, but basically the tale is as follows: In the absence of her consort Shiva, his mother, Parvati, desires to bathe undisturbed.  She creates a living child from soap suds and sets him to guard the door. Shiva returns, unaware of this, and demands entry. Ganesha, newly born with but one thought of "guard the door" refuses. In a fit of anger, Shiva burns Ganesha's head off with a glance from his third eye. At this point, Parvati emerges from the bath and is furious. Since in India goddesses hold the real power, Shiva is properly humbled. He rushes out to locate a replacement head, that of an elephant, for Ganesha and all is well.

Ganesha dances in the same manner as that of his father. In the form of Shiva Nataraja, "Dad" is the Lord of the Dance of Creation and Destruction. Ganesha also holds an ax, a goad, a water container, a jar of sweets, and one of his tusks, broken off in a battle with a demon. Like all Hindu gods Ganesha has an animal vehicle. His vehicle is the rat. If you're wondering how a man can ride on a rat, you might want to give some thought to how an elephant's head can fit on a man's shoulders. We're in the realm of myth here, where physical probabilities are irrelevant!

"Animal art heightens our understanding of nature."

 Fig. 6

Albrecht Durer was the leading artist of the Renaissance in Germany at the turn of the sixteenth century. He influenced, and was influenced by, the artists of the Italian Renaissance in his trips across the Alps. These journeys are preserved in some of the best known watercolors of the Old Master period. Besides pioneering the medium of watercolor, with Hare Durer demonstrates his keen powers of observation. In his minutely detailed nature studies, Durer proved himself, along with Leonardo da Vinci, to be one of the fathers of modern science.

 As a bit of trivia, this watercolor drawing is so intricately executed, one can see the reflection of the studio window in the hare's eyeball! 450 years later, cartoonists were still employing this device in rabbits' eyes in the pages of "funny animals" comics of the 1950s.

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