Art, Animals, and Experience

Elizabeth Sutton, using a phenomenological approach, investigates how animals in art invite viewers to contemplate human relationships to the natural world. Using Rembrandt van Rijn?s etching of The Presentation in the Temple (c. 1640), Joseph Beuys?s social sculpture I Like America and America Likes Me (1974), archaic rock paintings at Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, and examples from contemporary art, this book demonstrates how artists across time and cultures employed animals to draw attention to the sensory experience of the composition and reflect upon the shared sensory awareness of the world.

"This book asks readers to take another look at the ways in which animals are represented in art and, in so doing, raises some important ethical and aesthetic considerations."

? J. Keri Cronin, Brock University

"Phenomenology has taught us much about how artworks trigger our perceptual capacities, but its ability to teach us about the possible ethical relationships between viewer and artwork has been less explored. In this original and thought-provoking study, Sutton explores such a possibility through the framework of the representation of dogs in art. Through such exploration, Sutton shows that our empathy with animals?and their empathy with us?has much to tell us about our empathy with artworks."

- Matthew Bowman, University of Suffolk