Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics

This book takes on the art world and skewers it beautifully. The articles sound serious, because they are written like real essays about artists and their paintings and like real reviews of art exhibitions. The contrived photos of abstract paintings with cats seated next to them sporting what looks like fresh paint on their paws add greatly to the fun. The large format of the book and the copious full-color photos are perfect. Great fun!

I have a masters degree but I have to confess, 20 years ago I started reading the book which I found at a yard sale and I bought an extra copy because I want to give it away to somebody. I actually please forgive me but I actually was believing it or I couldn't tell at first reading. Give it to somebody who's gullible like me and watch the fun

This is a miniaturized version of the book I bought decades ago. A pocket version, I gather, edited down to fit within it's much smaller dimensions.

I enjoyed this book, too many different cats for this to be accidental. Then last month, I went out with a friend, Carol, whe had left a 18 x 12" flat box in the living room near the front door which had an inch of soil in it. She also has two mature female cats. When we .came back two hour later her Maine coon cat was sitting in the box, spread out over the ceramic tile floor about 4 square feet area was about 25% of the dirt from the box. She had expressed her artistic drive with the dirt. It was her look of pride, the look when a cat has done something good as a gesture of affection. She was look at us, sitting tall, expecting us to pet her approvingly.I would have went over an pet her approvingly, but carol was already in the kitchen with a dust pan and broom, and I being a guest didn't feel like reinforcing the cat for her dirt arrangement was appropriate.The next day I gave Carol my "Why Cats Paint" so that she would understand what had occurred.Yes some cats will paint or rearrange objects to express the artistic drive. It is not common, and occurs only when there is a friendship between the person and the cat. If she hadn't just finished, she would be sitting elsewhere and I wouldn't have recognized her creative. I would have that that the 2 cats were playing in the dirt.As by training a philosopher, I can see a parallel with human art and decorating, and cats painting. We are more complicated, and as a social animal it is much different than cat painting. But there is something that drives us both. There is also on YouTube examples of elephants painting--they do much better than cats.One part of the answer is that when alone and looking at visually interesting scenes the brain relaxes, get s out of the focus mode. Art on the wall and nick-nacks help me relax.

It was a gift for my sister. She loved it!

My cat loving friend got a kick out of this!

Arresting art and a parody of art criticism.

As can be observed in the feline predilections of today's popular culture, from the LOL cat phenomenon to the plethora of cat-themed videos sprouting on YouTube, cat art has become a significant field of interest to much of the general public, and will likely continue to grow exponentially in both quantity and popularity. Yet for all its ubiquity in our visual culture, there remains a clear lack of scholarly unpacking on the subject. Indeed, the paucity of serious scholarly work on the subject is nothing short of surprising, considering both the quantity and diversity of materials available for analysis. Moreover, considering the increasing relevance of the post-human perspective in academic scholarship, it is indeed shocking that cat art has not yet been intellectually interrogated in earnest.Enter then, Why Cats Paint. To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date. Intended to provide readers with a broad overview of the field of cat art, it commences with a brief historical sketch on the development of feline painting, spanning ancient Egypt to the twentieth century. Having provided readers with this historical framework, the authors then proceed to introduce the work of several contemporary (albeit by 1994 standards) cat artists, again with the intention of providing a broad foundation to the field of cat art. The artists featured here work in a variety of stylistic modes and philosophical angles, from Trans-Expressionism to Intuitive Minimalism. While the book focuses primarily on painters, it also briefly ventures into other mediums, including installation, deconstruction, and assemblage.The book's primary strength is its overall comprehensiveness., and it strives to provide a general overview that can serve as a springboard for future scholarship. The historical sketch offers a fine summary of cat painting. The section on Egypt is particularly illuminating, and includes examples of actual ancient cat art. The biographies of the various contemporary feline artists are also quite effective, and manage to highlight the aesthetic merits of each individual without deteriorating into sycophantic adulation. Overall, the writing is serious without being overly pedantic, and the photography, critical to any study of art, is exceptional. Photographing works of art is an extremely difficult endeavor, but the authors here succeeded admirably in maintaining the integrity of the color and texture of each work. I was also very impressed with the action shots, particularly those of Bootsie, the effusive Trans-Expressionist. Given the mercurial nature of cats as a species, let alone as artists, such an undertaking is truly an admirable one.Nonetheless, as with any pioneering work on art that must carve out the path for future, more thorough endeavors, Why Cats Paint is not without its shortcomings. The historical sketch, while intended to provide a brief overview of cat art, does omit critical moments its effort to achieve brevity, most notably the transformative counter-catural movement of the 1960s, when cats began to openly rebel against the 1950s ideal of the docile pet and expressed their frustrations at the banality of domesticity through performance scratching, carrion installation, and other feral mediums. The overview of contemporary cat artists, moreover, while intended to survey a variety of styles, is noticeably biased in favor of award-winning artists who conform to the aesthetic inclinations of the commercial art world, ignoring outsider cat artists altogether. The book is also, as is evident through its title, concentrates almost exclusively on painting. While is does briefly address scratching and installation, its treatment is brief, and there is almost nothing on performance art, a medium which has become particularly crucial to today's cat artists, as is evident through the proliferation of online videos.Overall, however, this is an excellent work on the study of cat art. It is a fine introduction to the subject, and an excellent springboard for future study. At the same time, however, given its date of publication (1994), it has become a historical document itself, and should be read as such rather than as a contemporary work. That said, I'd be interested to see whether any of the progeny of these cat artists have gravitated toward the painted paw.So why do cats paint, then, you ask? Well, if I told you, you wouldn't want to read the book now, would you?

My partner had seen a copy of this book many years ago, and was always talking about it, he was delighted to finally have his own copy to share with others.And its a fun read too :)

Charmant et de belles histoires

Sono felice di averlo acquistato anche se non nuovo. Lo avevo prestato e non mi fu più restituito, non averlo preso nuovissimo mi da l'impressione di aver riavuto il mio.

this is the best! Bought it twice for different friends and they thought was hilarious. Jokes aside it was actually quite interesting and has chapters on history of cats, well known artists and other types of cat art -namely clawing your sofa to threads. It’s take itself quite seriously so would prob suit a cat lover or just someone who loves different weird books

1ヶ月以上経ちますが、まだ、うけとってませんどうすれば、いいですか？