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Category Archives: cats in art
Cats have been depicted in art since humans began to create. My Kitty Care shares paintings, sculptures, films, poems, literature, anything creative that includes, involves or is about cats.
Her new sweater doesn’t smell of me I could pee on that She’s gone out for the day and left her laptop on the counter I could pee on that Her new boyfriend just pushed my head away I could pee on him She’s ignoring me ignoring her I could pee everywhere She’s making up for it by putting me on her lap I could pee on this I could pee on this
This was gruesome—fighting over a ham sandwich with one of the tiny cats of Rome, he leaped on my arm and half hung on to the food and half hung on to my shirt and coat. I tore it apart and let him have his portion, I think I lifted him down, sandwich and all, on the sidewalk and sat with my own sandwich beside him, maybe I petted his bony head and felt him shiver. I have told this story over and over; some things root in the mind; his boldness, of course, was frightening and unexpected—his stubbornness—though hunger drove him mad. It was the breaking of boundaries, the sudden invasion, but not only that it was the sharing of food and the sharing of space; he didn’t run into an alley or into a cellar, he sat beside me, eating, and I didn’t run into a trattoria, say, shaking, with food on my lips and blood on my cheek, sobbing; but not only that, I had gone there to eat and wait for someone. I had maybe an hour before she would come and I was full of hope and excitement. I have resisted for years interpreting this, but now I think I was given a clue, or I was giving myself a clue, across the street from the glass sandwich shop. That was my last night with her, the next day I would leave on the train for Paris and she would meet her husband. Thirty-five years ago I ate my sandwich and moaned in her arms, we were dying together; we never met again although she was pregnant when I left her—I have a daughter or son somewhere, darling grandchildren in Norwich, Connecticut, or Canton, Ohio. Every five years I think about her again and plan on looking her up. The last time I was sitting in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and heard that her husband was teaching at Princeton, if she was still married, or still alive, and tried calling. I went that far. We lived in Florence and Rome. We rowed in the bay of Naples and floated, naked, on the boards. I started to think of her again today. I still am horrified by the cat’s hunger. I still am puzzled by the connection. This is another insane devotion, there must be hundreds, although it isn’t just that, there is no pain, and the thought is fleeting and sweet. I think it’s my own dumb boyhood, walking around with Slavic cheeks and burning stupid eyes. I think I gave the cat half of my sandwich to buy my life, I think I broke it in half as a decent sacrifice. It was this I bought, the red coleus, the split rocking chair, the silk lampshade. Happiness. I watched him with pleasure. I bought memory. I could have lost it. How crazy it sounds. His face twisted with cunning. The wind blowing through his hair. His jaw working.
Artists and cats are a perfect combination. So much so, Impressionist painter Claude Monet was once given a porcelain cat, which was made in Japan, as a gift. Then it disappeared for several decades. After a recent discovery, the glazed cat makes headlines and a tidy profit from Christie’s recent auction in Hong Kong.
Claude Monet’s terra cotta cat comes home
Martin Baile, from Art Newspaper, says the cat is back at Monet’s house in Giverny, northern France, due to an unknown family member
Self portrait with Beret, 1886
Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was born in Paris. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (1872). One of his most famous paintings is Water LIllies, (194-1926) which hangs at The Musuem of Modern Art in New York City.
Water Lillies Painted 1914-1926 by Monet
According to Smithsonian magazineThe American socialite Pauline Howard-Johnson visited Monet’s house in 1924. She remembers seeing the cat on a couch in the bright yellow dining room
“On a pillow, a white cat—sort of unpolished terracotta—sleeping snugly,” she said.
Monet’s cat back in his house in Giverny. Photo: Martin Bailey
Later, she saw it in the home of Michel, Monet’s second son, who was killed in a car crash in 1966. That’s when the glazed biscuit cat disappeared.
In 2011, Adrien Meyer, co-chair of the Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, was invited to a private home. During his visit he noticed unframed Monet paintings stored under beds, Monet’s eyeglasses and other items in cardboard boxes, and the terra-cotta cat he said “was very casually sitting on the piano.”
Michel was married but didn’t have children. He left his vast collection of family artifacts and paintings to France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts and its Marmottan Monet Museum, although some paintings and items from his collection appeared to be missing reported Mark Brown at The Guardian. Turns out Michel had an illegitimate daughter that no one, including Monet experts, knew about. Her name was Rolande Verneiges (born 1914-2008). She inherited the missing portion of Michel’s collection.
Sometime after Ms. Verneiges death, her heirs contacted Mr. Meyer because they decided to auction the paintings and artifacts.
The cat was estimated to sell for about $3000-$4000. It went for $67,0000, purchased by the Japanese art and coin dealer Hideyuki Wada. He donated it to the Fondation Claude Monet, which runs Monet’s house in Giverny in northern France.
The cat is now back in Monet’s dining room, napping comfortably on a cushion.
Hanging above the cat is a facsimile of one of the Japanese prints acquired by Monet, Utagawa Hiroshige’s dramatic depiction of a swooping eagle.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954, French) is one of my most favorite artists. So obliviously I was curious about Henri Matisse and cats – did he like them? Did he love them? Did he have cats?
Matisse with his cat Minouche, Nice 1940’s
Matisse did indeed have cats. In fact, he was especially fond of his two cats Minouche and Coussi, and a black cat named la Puce, translated means the flea.
girl with a black cat 1910 henri matisse was his daughter Marguerite
OK, so did he ever paint them?
This painting is called Girl with a Black Cat, it was painted in 1910. The girl is Matisse’s daughter, Marguerite.
Le chat aux poissons rouges (the cat with red fish) 1914, Henri Matisse
Blue Cat, 1940’s. by Henri Matisse
The fact that Henri Matisse loved cats makes me love him even more. He was someone who had a unique eye, a creative imagination and a nature sensitive enough to appreciate cats.
Henri Matisse loved cats.
Cat Film Festival at The School of Visual Arts 2017
Rejoice New York City cat lovers! Lucky for us, the first annual Cat Film Festival happens December 9, 2017 at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. But not to worry if you can’t attend the festival, here’s a peek into sharing our love for cats at the NY CFF. The festival is organized into two programs, screening documentaries, fiction, and fun quirky films.
WHERE: The School for Visual Arts Theatre – 333 West 23rd Street (Between 8th & 9th Avenues) WHEN: Saturday, December 9th 2017 at 3:00 PM & 4:30 PM
3:00 PM “Nobody Owns a Cat” (70 minutes)
4:30 PM “Little Works of Art” (68 minutes)
The two programs screen completely different films – each program a medley of films celebrating the cats we love so much, in varied environments and situations. To have the full Cat Film Festival experience you’ll want to see both programs – which are appropriate for everyone in the family.
PROGRAM #1 “NOBODY OWNS A CAT” (70 minutes)
Pure Fluff (5:00) Sean Skelton’s documentary sketch of a professional cat groomer, who shows how it’s done. Winter Break (5:00) Rick Hamilton Enjoy this funny story of a preschool teacher who has only her cat for company during winter break.
Jetty Cats, Sheila O’Rourke
Jetty Cats (56:00)Sheila O’Rourke A sweeping overview of cats throughout human history, while exploring the contemporary debate about Trap-Neuter-Return as the best management for community cats by looking at a long-surviving feral cat colony on a seaside jetty in Southern California. Here is a 3 minute 38 second trailer for Jetty Cats
Amuleto by Jeff Malmberg
Amleto (2:00) Jeff Malmberg’s visual “poem” to the morning ritual of a Tuscan cat.
Akamatsu the Cat by Ian Christopher Goodman photo by Ian Christopher Goodm
Documentary about life with a disabled kitty cat,
Akamatsu, who was hit by a car and paralyzed
but went on to live another 4 vibrant years with the use of a wheelchair.
Portrait of a Catfighter from Graceann Dorse on Vimeo.
Ms. Dorse’s mockumentary spoof gives a funny peek at what a New Jersey “cat fighting ring” run by mahjong-playing old ladies might look like. (who run their own non-profit cat rescue in Los Angeles) examined the community cats living in the iconic Buenos Aires Recoleta cemetery, and what became of the cats removed by well-meaning American rescuers.
Ms. Donato’s quirky film about Gus, who seems to think he is a cat and can hide his identity from others, although the people around him can see right through his mask.
Mittens from Kittens (4:00)Kim Best
This documentary showing how one woman’s nusiance cat fur is another woman’s inspriation to spin and knit it into useful items.
Scaredy, the Cat (8:00) Markie Hancock’s heartwarming documentary about a very shy cat who avoids everyone where she was adopted – at the tennis courts in NYC’s Riverside park- except for a few choice people whom she eagerly greets.
LittleWorks of Art (13:00) Also byKim Best.
Ms. Best looks at Harold “Cat Man” Sims’ and his self-styled American Museum of the House Cat in Sylva, NC, which houses over 10,000 cat-related objects and honors cats as “little works of art.” In addition, it supports Sims’ own no-kill, open space cat shelter and adoption efforts.
NY Cat Film Festival™ was founded by Tracie Hotchner, a nationally acclaimed pet wellness advocate.
Tracie Hotchner, the NY Cat Film Festival Founder & Director
NY CFF is “an exploration through film of the fascinating felines who share our lives, creating a shared audience experience that inspires, educates and entertains.”
Tickets for the NY CFF are $15 for each program
The NY CFF will give back to the animal welfare groups that keep cats protected and healthy. In New York in particular, the NY CFF will be giving back to a program of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, the NYC Feral Cat Initiative. NY Dog Film Festival happening the next day, December 10, at the same SVA Theatre, with showings of two films at 2:45 and 4:45 pm.
