Animal action!

Animals and their people
18. Sep 2022 – 26. Mar 2023

  • Melchior Hondecoeter │ Hahnenkampf │ um 1670–80
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    Melchior Hondecoeter │ Hahnenkampf │ around 1670–80
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF│Photo: Mick Vincenz
  • Zwei blaue Pferde | Johannes Brus | 2010
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    Two blue horses | Johannes Brus | 2010
    © Johannes Brus, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022 | Photo: Mick Vincenz
  • Ausstellungsansicht »Tierisch was los! Tiere und ihre Menschen«
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    Exhibition view »Animal action! Animals and their people«
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF │Photo: David Ertl
  • Johan Zoffany │Porträt Georges Steevens │um 1780 │
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    Johan Zoffany │Porträt Georges Steevens │around 1780
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF│Photo: Horst Bernhard
  • Ausstellungsansicht »Tierisch was los! Tiere und ihre Menschen«
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    Exhibition view »Animal action! Animals and their people«
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF │Photo: David Ertl
  • Der Wagen des Apollon | Odilon Redon | um 1905 –14
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    The Chariot of Apollo | Odilon Redon | around 1905-14
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF | Photo: Mick Vincenz
  • Werkstatt Frans Snyders │ Jagdstillleben mit Früchten │ um 1630–40
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    Werkstatt Frans Snyders │ Jagdstillleben mit Früchten │ around 1630–40
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF │ Photo: Horst Bernhard
  • Ausstellungsansicht »Tierisch was los! Tiere und ihre Menschen«
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    Exhibition view »Animal action! Animals and their people«
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF │Photo: David Ertl
  • Ursula Böhmer | All Ladies. Kühe in Europa: Normandie, Frankreich | 2000
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    Ursula Böhmer | All Ladies. Cows in Europe: Normandy, France | 2000
    © and Photo: Ursula Böhmer, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022 | Die Photographische Sammlung/SK-Stiftung Kultur/Dauerleihgabe der Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Photographischen Sammlung der SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln e. V.
  • Hölzerne Katzenfigur mit Mumie im Sockel | Ägypten 1. Jtsd. v. Chr.
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    Wooden cat figurine with mummy in base | Egypt 1st millennium. b.c.
    © Egyptian Museum Bonn, on permanent loan from the former Grevenbroich City Museum | Photo: Mick Vincenz
  • Stillleben mit Wild | Alexandre François Desportes | 1740
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    Still life with game | Alexandre François Desportes | 1740
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF | Photo: Peter Schälchli, Zürich
  • Ausstellungsansicht »Tierisch was los! Tiere und ihre Menschen« | Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Sammlung Rau für UNICEF, Foto: David Ertl
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    Exhibition view »Animal action! Animals and their people«
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck/Collection Rau for UNICEF │ Photo: David Ertl

About the exhibition

The animal world is unleashed in the Art Chamber Rau. 68 exhibits tell the exciting story of the relationship between animals and humans from antiquity to the present, from the Egyptian cat mummy to contemporary photography. The works from the Rau Collection for UNICEF are complemented in the exhibition by a plenitude of museum and privately owned treasures.

Mythical animal creatures cavort in the art of antiquity and populate the altars of the Middle Ages. They are central figures in religion and popular belief, sometimes as helping gods, sometimes as feared demons, or accompanying saints. Such depictions reflect the traditionally close bond between animals and humans. This relationship is ambivalent, characterized by love and fear, by uncompromising possessiveness and the acceptance of a useful helper by man’s side.

Dairy cows, sheep, horses and chickens will take centre stage in baroque imagery. The untamed wild animal, on the other hand, remains prey. Freshly shot down, retrieved by the faithful hunting dog, it is captured in the popular hunting still lifes of this era. In the seductively colourful kitchen interiors of the 17th and 18th centuries, on the other hand, the animal appears more and more fragmented. Faceless, de-individualized, it becomes a commodity.

In contrast, domestic animals such as dogs, cats, and horses have increasingly become our closest friends and companions since the 18th century. While in classical portraits the greyhound served the lord of the hunt as a badge of nobility, it now sits next to him as a companion and lap dog almost on an equal footing.

Finally, the exhibition also takes us into the present. Photographic animal portraits by Ursula Böhmer or Walter Schels bring us to eye level with our fellow creatures, while the sculpture of two peacefully grazing blue horses by Johannes Brus reminds us of a lost paradise, far removed from species extinction and climate change. 

Contact

Curator - Art Chamber Rau

Dr. Susanne Blöcker

+49 2228 9425-68
bloecker@arpmuseum.org

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