This book is a fantastic (though somewhat dated as my edition was from 1994) introduction to the fascinating world of cat art, with a specific focus on questioning the root motivational causes for feline aesthetic inclinations. The authors are among the best people to have written such a book; Heather Busch has been on the International Council for the Curation of Feline Art since its inception, and Burton Silver was a founder of the Australasian League of Feline Art Critics - and needless to say both are widely-recognised authorities on critiquing and exhibiting top-standard artworks by cats of all nations.
The book firstly provides an historical overview of recorded cat art; from ancient Egypt where the revered felines' wall daubings were seen as messages of the gods to Victorian England where a cat skilled at painting became famous as Mrs Broadmoore's show cat Mattisa, where live "pawtraits" were painted of audience members, much to their delighted surprise. The next chapter examines various theories of why exactly cats do paint; and from psychic energy fields to aesthetic rebuttals to dullard biologists' notions of behaviourism, this chapter provides a superb overview of the current theories. The final chapter demonstrates the variety of non-painted cat art currently in experimental circulation.
However, the highlight of the book is of course the central chapter, which in turn spotlights twelve of the most influentially groundbreaking cat artists in the world, showcasing their work and describing their methods, with quality commentary on the character of the artists and how this affects their work. I was deeply struck by the technical skill and poignant insights of the art by Tiger, a spontaneous reductionist and a middle-aged tabby - his 1991 mural Breakfast stirred things in me unfelt since I visited the Stedelijk modern art gallery. Undoubtedly though the height of artistic credit in contemporary feline circles must go to the collaborative works of Wong Wong and Lu Lu, who despite being so different (a young black female and old white male respectively) have so well-adjusted to duo painting that their 1993 work best exemplifying joint efforts was titled WongLu and auctioned for a record-breaking (in cat art) $19000.
However, the highlight of the book is of course the central chapter, which in turn spotlights twelve of the most influentially groundbreaking cat artists in the world, showcasing their work and describing their methods, with quality commentary on the character of the artists and how this affects their work. I was deeply struck by the technical skill and poignant insights of the art by Tiger, a spontaneous reductionist and a middle-aged tabby - his 1991 mural Breakfast stirred things in me unfelt since I visited the Stedelijk modern art gallery. Undoubtedly though the height of artistic credit in contemporary feline circles must go to the collaborative works of Wong Wong and Lu Lu, who despite being so different (a young black female and old white male respectively) have so well-adjusted to duo painting that their 1993 work best exemplifying joint efforts was titled WongLu and auctioned for a record-breaking (in cat art) $19000.
Okay, I'll be honest - this book is a joke. Not in a bad way; the book was intended as a satirical jibe* at both the helicopter-parenting-esque culture of ambitious cat owners and the pretentious pomp of art criticism. I was made aware of its existence during a boredom-induced inane Buzzfeed ramble, googled it out of curiousity and realised it was an actual book, was intrigued enough to read the Amazon description, had £3 left of a giftcard anyway and there was a second-hand one for that so I plumped for "why not this looks like an interesting laugh" and it arrived six days later and I read it immediately in one sitting while my tea went cold and my entire leg was replaced with pins and/or needles.
During that sitting, whilst reading, I was half laughing intermittently at how bizarre the whole thing was, and half desperately wondering whether the book was genuinely seriously actually real. Turned out it wasn't, but it's still hilarious. Would make a great gift for someone whose opinions of cats, art, or especially both, are a tad high. Though read it yourself too, because it's properly funny.
During that sitting, whilst reading, I was half laughing intermittently at how bizarre the whole thing was, and half desperately wondering whether the book was genuinely seriously actually real. Turned out it wasn't, but it's still hilarious. Would make a great gift for someone whose opinions of cats, art, or especially both, are a tad high. Though read it yourself too, because it's properly funny.
* I only just found this out. While reading the book I was in a constant state of bafflement as to whether it was actually serious or not, and the more I read the more convinced I was that it was in fact seriously a book about a genuine thing that actually happens in the real world (i.e. cat art) but nay, having finished it and sat upon the internet to write this post, my curiousity took hold and I googled it, and it is in fact a hoax book. The whole thing about psychic energy fields should've tipped me off, but at the time I just put that down to the authors probably being typically weird cat people**. It genuinely really upset me that the book was a hoax. It's still hilarious, so big props to the authors, for being committed to superlative comedy instead of brilliantly obscure animal art academia.
** I am a cat person, sort of, so no offence intended. Cats are great. I just have residual connotations in my mind with people who obsess over cats and people who probably don't find "psychic energy fields" an unlikely explanation for impromptu pet-paintings.
No comments:
Post a Comment