Team Cat or Team Dog? An artist’s view
More than 250 works by artists from Rembrandt to Hockney that immortalise our favourite animals are on show in Melbourne.
One of history’s most enduring debates – which is the better pet, the cat or the dog? – has finally found its place in the spotlight at a new exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Melbourne.
Cats & Dogs brings together more than 250 works of art and design, drawn from the National Gallery of Victoria collection, all of which feature our domesticated companions.
It explores how humans have been connected to them – and how they have served as muses for artists – across different times and cultures.
Laurie Benson, one of the curators of the exhibition, said there was a decision to embrace the rivalry between cats and dogs when creating the exhibition: it is divided down the middle, with cat works on one side and dog works on the other.
“We’ve deliberately set up a bit of conflict between cats and dogs,” he says.
The show draws on works from a wide range of periods, including pieces by Rembrandt, Francisco Goya, Thomas Gainsborough and Pierre Bonnard, as well as contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and David Hockney.
“We cover all cultures, all media,” Benson says. “There’s absolutely everything – if you name it, we’ve got it in the show. Once we gathered a group of images together, the themes of the show just fell into place.
“Instead of us saying: ‘Let’s impose an idea on the pictures’, we let the collection speak to us and guide the themes. It evolved from there.”
The resulting 20 themes include depictions of dogs and cats behaving badly (and behaving well); fashion featuring cats and dogs; the lives of working cats and dogs; how they are shown in popular culture in mythology and religion; and Australian Indigenous stories related to them.
One highlight is the recently acquired poster for Company of the Black Cat (better known as the Chat Noir), an art nouveau poster created in 1896 by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen.
Beyond its incredible artworks, the exhibition is designed to be interactive. Visitors are encouraged to upload photos of their own furry companions, to be displayed alongside the gallery’s collection. Benson, who admits to being firmly on the “cats are the best” side, says he even may contribute a few of his own cat photos to the gallery’s exhibition.
“Think about how many photos of cats and dogs people take,” Benson says. “I love the idea that those pictures will be hanging on the walls of the gallery as part of the show.”
Whether you’re a dog lover, a cat aficionado or somewhere in between, this exhibition promises to delight and to spark spirited conversations.
Cats & Dogs is at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, until July 20 next year.
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