Modern Cat

June 18, 2016 - September 11, 2016

Gallery 235

Cats, cats, and more cats!  This show reveals the extraordinary and lasting appeal of the domestic feline as a subject for modern artists internationally. Modern Cat features approximately 20 prints, dating from about 1890 to 1980, from the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum. The works reveal wide-ranging approaches to the representation of cats, from the slinky Art Nouveau color lithograph by Théophile Steinlen to the whimsical abstraction of Joan Miró. Cats were especially attractive to mid-century Modernists, as represented in the work of Charley and Edie Harper and Inagaki Tomoo. From cuddly sofa companion to menacing predator, the feline’s quintessential character traits and exquisite form are distilled here using a variety of printmaking techniques into compelling, colorful works of art.

Free Admission

Image: Inagaki Tomoo (Japanese, 1902–1980), Cat Gathering (Night), 1957, color woodcut, The Howard and Caroline Porter Collection, 1990.427