Artists and their pets True stories of famous artists and their animal friends

The lives of eccentric and talented artists are always high-interest topics, and their relationships with their animal companions provides fodder for this collective biography. Rockwell, Pollock, Picasso, and O'Keefe are just a few of the iconic artists included, and sketches of their most famous works are rendered in illustrations throughout. Readers will be delighted to read about the fairly typical love of dogs and cats, along with the more outlandish tales of Dali's pet ocelot and da Vinci's training of wild birds. The animals provide an avenue for examining not only the major events in each person's career but also their artistic process and their philosophy about the world around them. In addition, the stories have a way of humanizing some of these larger-than-life eccentric figures by pointing to a potential commonality between them and animal-loving readers. Including artists from across time and place, this book is a successful survey of art history and a fun reminder of the special relationship between humans and animals.--Anderson, Erin Copyright 2017 Booklist

Illustrated profiles of 20 famous artists and the pets they owned. This intriguing concepttelling stories of artists and their petsunfortunately doesn't get off the ground. Each artist's life is summarized with a chapter of uncontroversial facts: when and where born (late 19th and 20th centuries predominate), where educated, exhibitions, movements founded, fame, and what pets they owned. Even Andy Warhol's life comes across as pretty ordinary. Of the 20, three are womenFrida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Suzanne Valadonand the majority, 16, are white. One is black (Romare Bearden), one is Mexican (Kahlo), and two are Asian (Ai WeiWei and Tsuguharu Foujita). Although David Hockney, openly gay, is profiled, his sexual orientation is not mentioned. What the book does well is to impart to readers the value of persistence (many artists had to overcome early rejection), and it presents a clear overview of the many named art movements, with a helpful glossary included. Lemay's illustrations are simple spots of the artists and their pets scattered throughout, and she also offers her interpretation of some of the recognizable paintings of each artist "to familiarize the reader with certain iconic works." Despite its impressive amount of information, this ultimately comes across as a sanitized list of facts about each artist and the names and types of pets they owned. (glossary, sources, art citations, index) (Collective biography. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.