ARTISTS AND THEIR CATS

Abstract

Humans and cats are two species that have shared the same environment for thousands of years. This relationship began approximately 10,000 years ago with the development of agricultural societies, and cats gained an important place in human life by protecting grain stores from rodents. Considered sacred in ancient Egypt, cats were valued both as divine symbols and as pets. However, in the Middle Ages, cats gained a bad reputation by being associated with witches, and the cat genocides that occurred during this period were ended with the efforts of various groups such as artists. The fact that cats started to appear in works of art allowed them to be accepted as a popular pet again. Many artists in the past and today have been influenced by cats in the real world, shared their living spaces with them, observed them, and formed a friendship with them. With the influence of this friendship, artists included their pet cats in their paintings, equipped the cat figures they used with meanings they determined and depicted them according to their own understanding of form. Many artists, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Balthus, from Louis Wain to Picasso and Matis, have immortalized their friendships by bringing their cats into their art. Many famous names from Turkish art, such as Cihat Burak, Orhan Peker, Fikret Otyam, Gürbüz Doğan Eşkioğlu, have reflected their friendships with their cats in their artistic works. This study, written using historical research techniques, aims to investigate the place of cats in works of art and their effects on artists. As a result, the interaction between artists and cats is examined, and the scenes in which cats are used and the meanings these figures carry in terms of art are evaluated.