I gather here, works including or representing cats, without chronology, just works that I like or surprise me.
Poster by Kelfkens, 1960s
Pierre Bonnard, Le Chat exigeant, 1912. This is what my grandfather, Aimé Maeght, said about Bonnard: "For me, Bonnard is 'the' painter. In the long discussions I had with him, he was the one who was at the basis of my evolution and the opening of my mind to living art. Without Bonnard, I might have continued like the other dealers. Bonnard arrived at the moment in my life when I wanted to make that great leap into modern art and it was he, first of all through his painting and through the many thoughts and discussions we had together, who made me understand what modern art could be."
He will always surprise us with his freedom, his technicality, his subjects, his modernity and of course his genius for composition. We can understand that the subject, as he said, did not interest him, that it is only a pretext for the composition, for the balance of the composition. Who is this? Pierre Bonnard, of course! No of a dog (or cat), how beautiful... Pierre Bonnard, Chats jouant, 1904.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Chat, 1882.
1966 Chat, Mobile by Alexander Calder
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, L'Été, Chat Sur Une Balustrade, 1909.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, L'Artiste, 1910.
"Pierrot et le chat", 1889, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen. I have a passion for this painting.
Léonard Foujita, Chat couturier, 1927.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, "Jeune fille au chat" de 1876.
Pablo Picasso, Chat dévorant un oiseau, 1939.
Pablo Picasso, Etude de chat, 1946.
Collage by Jacques Prévert. Here is the alley of Saint-Paul that goes up to the church, as I knew it, minus the characters pasted by Prévert, of course. On the right, it was an antique store, on the left, a marvelous woman was making mohair shawls in color assortments that would make Yves Saint Laurent swoon. In the evening, when the beautiful customers of the Colombe d'Or were shivering, Titine Roux would send the kids to buy the frothy wools. We would walk around, Molière 500 franc bills in hand, proud to have to choose the shades that would best match the jewels of the South American women and the silks of Balenciaga.
Kees van Dongen, Femme au chat, 1908
In the series of cats in the history of art, one of my favorites of the 20th century, Francis Picabia, 1953. He knew how to do everything ! Francis Picabia, Chat, 1953.
Francis Picabia, Le chat, 1938.
Andy Warhol, "Sam" Un chat rose (vers 1954)
Karel Appel, The Circus Suite, Le Chat Clown, 1978.
Un chat flamboyant by Walasse Ting.
Among the artists of the CoBrA movement, do not forget Corneille. Painter of the color, the women and often of the cats. Corneille, "Jeux entre chat et oiseau," 1994.
Aki Kuroda, "Love" (cat), 2019.
Alberto Giacometti, cat
Diego Giacometti "Le Chat maître d'hôtel"
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, "Chat abyssin assis", between 1859 and 1923, bronze
Paul Klee, "Chat et oiseau", 1928.
Here the bird seems to be flying not in front of the cat's forehead, but inside it, it is literally in his mind. Klee focuses on thought. One of his goals as an artist was to "make secret visions visible". I love the heart for the nose.
Suzanne Valadon, Raminou assise sur une nappe, 1920
Hiro Ando, Samouraï Cat (1997) The streets of Tokyo and the world of Manga inspire Japanese artist Hiro Ando who emerged in 1995 as an illustrator and then as an artist with various media, painting, digital, sculpture and video. While his paintings depict the urban landscape of Japan, Ando is known for his resin, bronze and porcelain cats such as "Sumocat", "Big Samurai" and "Robocat" sometimes covered with diamonds, traditional Japanese motifs or bright colors. Ando's various incarnations of cats present a contemporary twist to the maneki-neko, the famous lucky cat.
1947 "Jeune fille au chaton" by Lucien Freud
A creation of Studio Job, Cat Fight, 2014. Based in Antwerp, Studio Job, is a creative duo founded over a decade ago by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel. Their bronze works often described as "neo-gothic," are fun without being kitschy. And there you have it!
