People’s perspectives on animals vary widely, they are often contradictory and constantly changing. We hunt, slaughter and eat animals; we look after them, stroke them and love them; we displace them and protect them, we capture them and poach them.
Image gallery
Utamaro: Mushirui Gafu, 1892 (Ausschnitt)
Some animals may disgust or shock us (spiders, sharks and wolves), others we find funny and cute (monkeys, puppies and kittens); we either subjugate them and use them for our own ends, or make them our loyal friends and lifelong companions.
Spanning four centuries, the current exhibition at Schloss Britz features a rich variety of animal paintings, ranging from the fantastical and poetic to the meticulous and analytical. Its theme explores the ways in which animals have been portrayed, interpreted, understood or misunderstood.
The collection runs the gamut from scientific illustrations and drawings for ‘Brehm’s Life of Animals’, Japanese woodblock prints and humorous drawings by Marunde and Sowa to works by contemporary artists expressing both concrete and abstract interpretations of the theme through paintings, sculptures and installations.
As varied as the intentions and designs may be, together they convey a dazzling kaleidoscope ‘Of Animals and Other People’.
