Many artists have made cats the subject of their work. This focus on felines can be traced through various sources from the Archives, including photographs, exhibition announcements, and scrapbooks. We can trace the life of an artwork, beginning with the moment of inspiration to its critical reception in the press.
Sculptor Anne Arnold (1925–2014) owned a house with a barn in Montville, Maine, where she raised farm animals such as pigs, cows, and chickens, and kept many dogs, cats, and bunnies. A few of her cats, like Christy shown here, inspired an entire exhibition in 1969 devoted to cats at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City. “What made the show so extraordinary was that their cat-ness was neither parodied nor exaggerated but presented straight, so that one had a sense of form completely filled with content,” noted one critic in a review for Art News.
These records are currently on view in our exhibit 'Before Internet Cats’ http://s.si.edu/2o7sJWN
