Animals With Sharpies by Michael Dumontier

by Michael Dumontier

Paintings by two of Canada's most influential contemporary fine artistsAnimals with Sharpies is a collection of paintings with hand-lettered texts. In each painting, Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber have depicted an animal holding a Sharpie, ostensibly writing a message. These messages are varied in political and religious tracts, confessions, recipes, arithmetic problems, and more. Above all, these paintings are funny, but they are also startlingly poignant and jarring for the humanness of the suffering and longing depicted in these animals' simple words.Dumontier and Farber, two of the founding members of the highly influential art collective the Royal Art Lodge, have been collaborating on art projects for more than fifteen years. Their collaborative style is unique from that found in their individual works and is respected they've exhibited together in France, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Belgium, Spain, England, and Germany.Dumontier and Farber have a strong sense of the absurd, but they are also deeply insightful about the world in which their art is created. Animals with Sharpies is a mixture of new, previously unseen pieces and older pieces.

Genres: Art, Humor, Comedy

Hardcover

First published April 2, 2013

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is one of the books that greg came across at the store (where i miss shelving books like crazy!!) and thought i might like, so he sent me a picture of the cover, and i saw the title and said "duhhh, of course i want you to put that on hold for me!" see, i thought it was a book of photographs of animals holding sharpies in their mouths, and being manipulated so it looked like they were writing the words on the page.

but it is not. it is just paintings of animals holding sharpies in their mouths and being made to look like they are writing the words on the page. which i would have known if i had bothered to go to the goodreads page and read the description instead of squawking, like a child, "animals?? wannit!!"

so at first, i was disappoint because i like photos of animals being funny. but i had already bought it so what was i gonna do? and when i actually sat down with it, i discovered it was still a hoot, even though it was not what i had expected. and then greg pointed out that it was created by two of the founders of the royal art lodge (which i also would have learned had i gone to the goodreads page), which is a canadian collective that marcel dzama was also one of the founders of, and he is a wacky canadian i love, and any friend of his is a friend of mine.

many of the paintings are poignant or baffling, but they are also

adorable:



proclamatory:



crude:



crude2:



hopeful:



educational:



cautionary:



mean:



rude:



reactionary:



defiant:



and rambly:



there are plenty more in the book - funny and perplexing, sweet and sad. it is a lovely little book, and now i am glad it isn't just photos of animals. it's not like there is a lack of those for my grabby hands...

[Lily :-) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite page is the duck that says Johnny I’m pregnant 🦆

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very basic premise stretched pretty thin. Some are clever, some are inexplicable. I found myself enjoying a few of these but at times the execution just came out flat. Ultimately, you can't help but realize that you're looking at a mostly blank page with an animal hand and a short sentence.

[Pia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm here for this absurdism

[Seven Pesos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny, very cute, but I didn't love all of the illustrations.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel kind of ignorant, because I just don't get it. The book design is visually striking, but most of the individual paintings left me just going "Um, okay?"

[Jeimy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't get it. Some of them made me smile, though.

[Mireille Messier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best one is the ant-eater. Very funny! I wished the painting were a little less dark and the animals easier to indentify.