Kibbles and Bits

If a dog barks in the wood and nobody hears it does the dog make a sound? What did a cur of the court of Marie Antoinette look like? The answer to these and other canine conundrums are answered if only metaphorically in the Best In Show exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 1 through January 1, 2007).
Covering over 400 years of dogs in art, one keenly observes dogs evolving from Renaissance-era stoic profiles to Romantic paintings that imbue the creature with pure emotions. A modern glance allows for William Wegman photography as well as pop art interpretations of man’s best friend. Thus Andy Warhol, who owned a pair of dachshunds, paints Ginger a cocker spaniel. Enclosed in glass is a skeletal dog grasping a newspaper in its jaws. Entitled Dog Skeleton with La Monde (or more succinctly bone and paper, 1997) its vacant yet obedient stare emanating from an ivory yellow skull adds a dash of surrealism to the already capricious surroundings.
Noted masters whose reputations were established by their animal reproductions, painters like Alexandre-Francois Desportes, Jean-Baptist Oudry, George Stubbs, James Ward and Sir Edwin Henry Landseer are duly represented and their images leave an impression that begs further study. Over 275 dogs appear in the various galleries on the second floor of the Beck Building, a touring collection that encompasses eight countries and over 30 museums. The most comprehensive assemblage of dog art ever to tour North America, the exhibit was inspired in part by Robert Rosenblum’s book The Dog in Art from Rococo to Postmodernism.
Cat aficionados can find solace in The Cat’s Meow, a sister exhibit, albeit smaller with only 23 works, on display downstairs from Best In Show.