Cats, cats, and more cats! Expressive or aloof, affectionate or enigmatic, cats have complicated characters that make them compelling artists' muses. Artful Cats explores the quirky and charming relationships of artists with their cats in 130 rarely seen photos, paintings, sketches, manuscripts, and letters from the Archives of American Art.
Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Breuer, Yves Tanguy, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Weston, Robert Indiana, Judy Chicago, Berenice Abbott, and Romare Bearden show off their artful cats, which appear as companions, inspirations, instigators, and often regents of the home or studio. The images, culled from the archive's extensive holdings from the nineteenth century through today, celebrate our cultural heritage through our enduring fascination, love, and bemusement with our feline familiars.
A foreword by Kate Haw, director of the Archives of American Art, describes how these archival treasures provide a window on unexpected and personal details of celebrated artists' lives and work.
Artful Cats explores the quirky and charming relationships of artists with their cats, in rare documents such as sketches and drawings, letters, and photographs from the nineteenth century through early 2000s. Whether expressive or aloof, the complicated characters of cats make them compelling artists' muses. They make appearances as independent studio companions, beloved members of the family, and the subjects of often-playful artworks. The artwork in this volume reflects our enduring fascination with felines.
