Katharina Fritsch, German, 1981/1989, mixed media

Katharina Fritsch is interested in how people see things. She changes the shape, color, size of things to allow the viewer to see it in a new way. This cat is actually a shoe scraper.

Francis Jourdain, French, about 1900, color aquatint

With just a few colors and bold, clear lines Jourdain depicts a white cat sitting by a dish a milk. There is very little detail and the colors are applied in even tones with little or no shading to create flat planes of color and an image pure in form.

Barry Flanagan, British, 1983, bronze, limestone

Flanagan pairs a hare and a bell--both frequent subjects in his work and both symbols of fertility. The leaping hare is playful and full of movement while the triangular-shaped bell is stable and secure, yet both are made of the same material--bronze.

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China, 1100-771 BCE, late Western Chou dynasty

This jade pendant in the form of a hare is approximately 3000 years old and was found in a grave. Jade is an extremely hard and beautiful stone. In China, jade is a symbol for everything that is good, pure and noble. The hare is a symbol of the moon and longevity.

Franz Marc, German, 1911, oil on canvas

Marc uses color in his work to express his spiritual connections to nature. He paints what he feels, not what he sees. In this painting he uses bright colors and sweeping curved lines to symbolize how pure and magnificent these horses are.

China, 1st Century, Eastern Han dynasty, bronze

This sculpture depicts a type of horse prized in China for its strength, speed and endurance. These horses, called "heavenly horses," were so valued that replicas were placed in grave sites to provide the dead with transportation in the afterlife.

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Festo Maralngurra, Australian, 1955, watercolor on paper

In Australia, images of animals and birds are often associated with ancestors.  Although this image is from the 20th century, images of animals and birds were painted on the walls of caves and on rocks as early as 18,000 years ago.

David Smith, American, 1947-1948

The Royal Bird is based on the skeleton of a prehistoric bird of the Cretaceous period, the Hesperornis regalis (royal evening bird), in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The artist made creative additions and streamlined the figure to resemble a diving bird.

Frank Gehry, Canadian, 1986

When Gehry was very young, his grandmother would buy a live carp at the market and keep it in the bathtub until she was ready to prepare it for the family meal. Inspired by those memories, Gehry made this 22-foot Standing Glass Fish.

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Utagawa Hiroshige, Japanese, 1830-1844, Edo period

In Japan, the carp is a symbol for perseverance because it swims upstream against the current to spawn. Also, the carp's armour-like scales made it a symbol of the valiant warriors known as the Japanese Samurai.

Claes Oldenburg, American, 1969-1971, aluminum, steel, paint

Oldenburg is interested in metamorphosis, or how something changes from one thing into another. Oldenburg transforms the idea of a small, soft, furry mouse into something large, hard and geometric. This sculpture sits on the terrace at the Walker Art Center.

Go to the next slide to see Oldenburg's drawing of a mouse.

Shibata Zeshin, Japanese, about 1880, woodblock print

Mice are a symbol of fertility and abundance in Japan, and white mice are considered especially good luck. In Japanese folklore, the god of agriculture employs white mice as his messengers. Zeshin creates these lively mice with simple, delicate lines.

China, late 12th century, Chin dynasty, ceramic

In China, the tiger was considered to be mightiest of all animals. This ceramic tiger pillow once served to protect against evil influences and demons that cause nightmares as the owner slept.

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Eugène Delacroix, French, 1829, lithograph

Delacroix depicted this majestic tiger in the vast African desert with realistic detail--silky fur coat, muscular limbs, watching eyes.  He learned how to draw these great cats by sketching in the zoos of France.

Graeco-Egyptian, 5th century, limestone

This ram was once part of a church altar in Egypt in the 5th century. In the Christian church, the ram is a symbol sacrifice and giving and therefore a reference to Jesus Christ.

Dogon, Mali, West African region, early 20th century, iron

In Dogon society the ram is regarded with respect. Its horns are symbols of strength, determination and perseverance because they serve to attack problems. However, rams only fight occasionally and do not often inflict harm, so they also represent restraint.

Jane Hammond, American, 1991, lithograph, screen print, collage on paper

Hammond creates her images from a combination of written sources, such as instructional manuals, children's books,  puppetry and magic books, as well as charts on alchemy, animals and religion. Her work is complicated, inconsistent and multifaceted, just like people and the world we live in.

Yoshitomo Nara, Japanese, 2002, fiberglass

Inspired by cartoon figures and Japanese animation, Nara created this large white puppy. This dog, nearly 9 feet long and 6 feet high, represents the dual nature of dogs as both cuddly and menacing to very small children.

Colima, Mexico, 100-300, ceramic

The Colima Dog, called xolo (show-low), in ancient Mexico was a guardian to the dead, healer to the sick, and watchdog. Placed in grave, xolos served to safeguard from evil spirits and intruders.

Angus Fairhurst, British, 1995

Fairhusrt  explores the interplay of nature and artifice. He was fascinated with the comic nature of gorillas. When asked about the gorilla suit, he said, "underneath this big hairy masculine thing, there I was in the end, a skinny lanky geezer".

Veraguas, Panama, 9th-15th century, gold

This pendant in form of a monkey holding its tail is less than three inches in size. In some Mesoamerican cultures, the monkey is considered mysterious because it looks and acts so human-like. Because they live in trees and eat fruits and foliage, some traditions associate monkeys with vegetation the sun and sky.

Louise Nevelson, American (Russian born) about 1934, ceramic

Nevelson's work is inspired by everyday objects placed together in unexpected ways  to create something completely new. By painting the whole sculpture black, which Nevelson called "the essence of the universe," the scrap components of her art are brought together.  

Moche, Peru, about 800, ceramic

The Moche people did not leave written records, but they did leave thousands of ceramic vessels, known as stirrup-spout vessels. These lively vessels depict people, spirits and animals and tell of the spiritual, political and day-to-day activities of the Moche.

Jasper Johns, American, 1990, lithograph

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