Product Description

Why did a woman in California pay an artist $5,000 to paint her cat to look like a pig? What made a New York stockbroker spend even more than that to have the image of Charlie Chaplin painted on his cat'¬?s posterior? WHY PAINT CATS reveals that, far from being an amusement for the idle rich, this seemingly aberrant behavior is part of a new art movement that claims to promote a better understanding of the cats in our lives. Following the international success of their previous collaboration of feline aesthetics, WHY CATS PAINT, Burton Silver and Heather Busch turn their scholarly attention to the cat as canvas. The authors detail all the latest trends in the movement, including the highly controversial Retromingent Expressionism, drawing conclusions that will provoke and amuse, startle, and enlighten. Exhaustively researched and lavishly illustrated, this insightful and engaging book raises important ethical questions and explores the rights of pet owners to reinvent their cats in the name of art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172778 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Released on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781580082716
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Subversively funny
I made the mistake of reading this book out on my deck, and I laughed out loud so often that the neighbors probably thought I finally lost it.

As with the best humor, the book is done with an absolutely straight face (well, except for the goofy portraits of the "artists" which beign each chapter). So straight, in fact, that I've seen at least two columnists who were taken in by it and reviewed it as a serious work.

The level of detail is amazing: not just in the cat photos (which are wonderful) but in footnotes ("Stace, P. Feline Kinetic Design as Installation ARt, 1999-2001 Journal of Applied Animal Aesthetics, Vol. VII, 2001), captions (a Santa-painted cat: "...she makes us painfully aware of the continuing unhealthy santaization of winter solstice symbolism with its stupefying illusion of male as dominant gift giver").

"Why Paint Cats" works on a lot of levels - as a skewering of art criticism, a gentle poke at cat lovers and Animal Rights activists, and best of all, as good, silly fun.

Lovely Book!
I really enjoyed Why Paint Cats- the photography and visual presentation is amazing. All the cats look beautiful! I have bought it for several friends and it really does make a wonderful gift- the perfect coffee table book!

Very funny book
This is one of the most entertaining art books I've seen. The text is well-written enough to fool most people, and the only way I knew it was a spoof was I've read my share of art criticism and art history, even though I'm a biologist by training, and I think I can detect when someone is making fun of the whole business.

Having figured out the text was a joke, it was only a hop, skip, and a jump to figuring out the cat paintings were probably fake and probably done on a computer. I'm not positive about this, since they look so realistic, but it seems likely. Also, it seems unlikely that any cat would sit still long enough to have such elaborate paintings done.

Furthermore, if that wasn't enough, the author states that some of the paintings were by well-known artists that cost as much as $7000 each--not very likely. (Also I've never heard of any of these artists).

Whether they're real or fake, the cat paintings are truly spectacular and are entertaining just by themselves. I note that a veterinarian in a previous review of this book said he saw his first "painted cat" recently, and he said that the cat had tried to lick off the paint and had ulcers on its tongue. This could be a jest also, but I suppose someone could have been taken in by the book too and actually tried to do one.

Well, I hope most people realize the whole book is very likely an elaborate joke and don't try to paint anymore cats if it can be harmful to them, but the book as just a book of remarkable cat "paintings" is quite entertaining.