Fat Cat Art: Famous Masterpieces Improved by a Ginger Cat with Attitude

by Svetlana Petrova

Internet meme meets classical art in Svetlana Petrova’s brilliant Fat Cat Art. Featuring her twenty-two-pound, ginger-colored cat Zarathustra superimposed onto some of the greatest artworks of all time, Petrova’s paintings are an Internet sensation. Now fans will have the ultimate full-color collection of her work, including several never-before-seen pieces, to savor for themselves or to give as a gift to fellow cat lovers.
 
From competing with Venus’s sexy reclining pose (and almost knocking her off her chaise lounge in the process) in Titian’s Venus of Urbino, to exhibiting complete disdain as he skirts away from God’s pointing finger in Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, Zarathustra single-handedly rewrites art history in the way that only an adorable fat cat can.

Genres: Cats, Art, Humor, Nonfiction, Animals, Art History

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2015

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the pictures but hated the text. But let’s be honest, I bought this for the pictures. About 25% in I gave up on the text.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes classical art works and adds ginger cats to them. The author gets 4 stars for the art works, which are intriguing. She gets 2 stars for the less-interesting talking about the pictures.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svetlana Petrova's Fat Cat Art: Famous Masterpieces Improved by a Ginger Cat with Attitude is a clever collection of famous art into which Petrova's 22-lb. ginger tabby, Zarathustra, has been thoughtfully inserted. That concept alone would probably be enough, but Petrova has upped the ante by integrating a cute combination of accompanying text written from Zarathustra's perspective as the book progresses through the history of art by select genres in chronological order. The book develops a number of different themes, exploring the place of memes in popular culture, the symbolism and stylistic conventions of art history, and the many ways in which the ubiquitous tabby has been excluded from iconic art--conspiracy, perhaps? Zarathustra might agree.

These works are far more than just photo-shopping a cat into a famous painting. Instead, Petrova had to meticulously work in the style of the original artist to drape a hand around this kitty and otherwise position the cat into the work. There's definitely something here for everyone, and it was hard for me to chose a favorite as they were all so entertaining.(The kitty-at-Lascaux, El Greco, Sargent, and Whistler are definitely in the running!) Fun stuff, for which I thank the First Reads Giveaway folks for delivering this one to my house where I could share them with another willful ginger kitty.

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Svetlana Petrova's "Fat Cat Art: Famous Masterpieces Improved by A Ginger Cat with Attitude" is a wonderful book for cat lovers! I really enjoyed the masterpieces after they had been improved by Zarathustra. I also found Ms. Petrova's writings to be delightful and a wonderful addition to the art in the book. I would definitely recommend this book to feline lovers.
My copy of this book was won from the Goodreads website. I would give it 5.5 stars if I could! I guess I'm a bit partial to this book because I used to have a kitty that could be Zarathustra's doppelganger and I now have another ginger cat with attitude, Mr. Sunny.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famous artworks with a fat ginger cat! Seriously, this idea is stellar. The actual realization is incredible too, if you read how the artist creates the actual works with all the posing and photo shopping. They're all seriously cute, but the Boticelli is my personal favorite. It's a piece I recreated myself in High School, except I did it as an anime style piece. A great book for cat and art lovers alike! Four stars.

[Sarah Ortinau · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A WAY TO INCORPORATE YOUR LOVE OF CATS AND ARTWORK...HAVE NO FEAR, THIS DOES IT FOR YOU!

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photoshopping a fat ginger cat in works of art sounds gimmicky, but Svetlana Petrova and her cat muse, Zarathustra, make this combination work, and there is nothing gimmicky about it. Petrova's introduction gives the backstory about how she came to this idea. She writes with a distinct voice and speaks eloquently and succinctly about the popularity of cats in pop culture and how her Fat Cat Art taps into that but is also something more. She talks about the process, which gets technical but is fascinating with how she photographs her cat in the pose she wants to insert into an art piece. The book divides the art into chapters of the different periods, and each artwork includes a blurb in Zarathustra's voice about how the cat was supposed to be in each artwork but was erased from history, at the same time giving bits of history and trivia about the art work itself, along with bits about cats. It's cute seeing the cat using cat language, like "mews" for muse, "arrt" for art, and speaking with the royal "we" and cat with a capital C. It's a clever way of sneaking in art history, which is one of Petrova's stated purposes behind her Fat Cat Art, especially if readers/viewers want to compare the original. The artwork is indeed improved by the presence of her cat, with clever positions and appropriate expressions. The photoshopping is done so well that it's hard to see most of the time that the cat wasn't originally there. Zarathustra's grandiose voice makes the history and trivia interesting and not dry at all, and it is a huge part of not getting hung up on the unlikely premise that the cat was supposed to be present at all periods of art history that it had been "erased" from. This book is almost 300 pages long, even with it being at least half picture and half explanations, and it takes longer to read through the explanations, but the reading is worth it with Zarathustra's distinct voice making the educational bits engaging to read and taking each picture beyond just an interesting novelty. My favorites were the Mona Lisa and The Persistence of Meowmery.

[Kitty Solbrig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't quite what I expected. I received this book in a first-reads giveaway and have had it for a few weeks, deciding what I really thought about it.

My main concern is this: the pictures inside are all in grayscale, so the fact that Zarathustra is a ginger cat is completely irrelevant. He's a gray cat in gray paintings in the book. I don't know if there's no color because this is an ARC, or if the final release will also have black-and-white pictures, but in a book of a ginger cat painted into famous works of art, I expected at least color images. It's hard to see, and the printing is not a very high quality, so even as a coffee table book, this is sort of a disappointment.

The concept is a lot more fun and a lot less cheezy than it could have been, so bravo on that. I enjoyed getting into the story and learning bits and pieces about the author, the cat, and the works of art included therein. This could have been a really fun art book...but again, with the poor image quality and lack of color, I was sorely disappointed.

If this book was for sale, I wouldn't buy it. If this book was for sale with high quality, color images, I would probably order it.

[Judie Dooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and so did a few of my friends who wanted to look at it while I was reading it. The idea of substituting That beautiful fat yellow cat for people in famous masterpieces of art was ingenious. And the sayings of the kitty along with each picture was truly special. I would love to recommend this wonderful book to all the cat lovers out there, wether they appreciate art or not. This book is magical--one of a kind. Thank you for letting me read it. It was a win from good reads.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all the great pictures and the stories are awesome. This is a great coffee table book. I find myself picking it up often to look at the great cat pictures. You have a wonderful and whimsical way of sharing the pictures. This book is worthy of 5 stars. MY ginger cat also agrees with this :)
Thank you GoodReqads.com for the book
Thank you to Svetlana Petrova for this wonderful picture and story book that I will display and look at for a long time .

[Cher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful reimagination of classic art through the ages improved by the addition of a rotund ginger cat. Perfect gift for art lovers and cat lovers alike. Thank you to artist Svetlana Petrova for her vision, cat wrangling and supreme photoshop skills for transforming an ideal from a potentially gimicky meme into a true pleasure.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot more fun than I expected, and had much more content than most "novelty" cat-themed books. Petrova takes famous paintings and "reinterprets" them, adding her cat Zarasthrusa to each one. She also adds comments "from the cat". Some are more successful than others, but I enjoyed seeing them all. I had considered buying a print of her version of the Dali "Persistence of Vision", but the shipping charges from Russia were a bit too much.

[Teri Reck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful catalogue of famous paintings which are improved by the addition of a beautiful red tabby (honestly, I feel like we always called them yellow tabbies, when I was growing up), or as the author says, a ginger cat. Quite amusing to see this cat in various poses in these well-known paintings. Also the explanatory text is hilariously written in the words of the cat. Such an entertaining book!

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free via Goodreads - thank you!

So this book is exactly as advertised. It's famous art with a large cat edited in. So if that's what you're looking for, you're good to go. I took away a star for the same reason some others have criticized it - this would be so much more effective and enjoyable in color!
Anyway, fun book to palate cleanse.

[Margaret Steele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won a galley copy of this on goodreads. As a ginger cat owner, I was excited to win this book. However, aside from the covers it is in black and white which severely detracts from the enjoyment. So much disappointment.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Goodreads winner*

When I first flipped through, the book looked a little cheesy. After I started reading it however, it was pretty cute. There are descriptions of each piece of art told from the cat, Zarathustra's, point of view. Turns out that cats were originally in all famous paintings! ;)

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine for what it is. Although this book had an earlier publication date, and so possesses trailblazer status, I feel like S.M. Bach's "Hedgehog Art Through the Ages" is a better-executed and funnier version of this particular joke.

[John Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book through the giveaways. It is purr-fect. Someone had to say it. If you like art and cats you will like this book. Very funny.

[Kelly Dashiell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't actually read the book, but did anyone really? However, I did look at the pictures, and those alone are worth it.

[rachel. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a gift from a friend and it was very cute.

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the paintings with the addition of a ginger cat! This book has inspired me to learn how to photoshop my magnificent ginger cat and make a calendar showing him off in all his glory.

[Jagruti · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Great coffee table book that I received as a gift. I follow the author on IG, so it was good to have a collection of her work. I like it for 3 reasons- i love anything subverting the classics, it was good to learn more about art history, and Zarathustra of course is endearing! Like other reviewers have mentioned though, the text is really not pleasant to read and I gave up on it midway.

[Novel Destination · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's not to like about "Fat Cat Art" by Svetlana Petrova and her 22 pound ginger cat, Zarathrustra? The art is well-chosen, you learn a bit, some snarky humor is included and the cat fits in the frames perfectly! Having had a special big ginger cat of my own in the past, I recognized the attitude that fill the pages is not all the author's invention.

[Ashlee Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you like art? Do you like cats? Well then this quick read is for you. This book has some of my favorite artworks in it made even better with a cat. Works like Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, Morning in a Pine Forest, Boy blowing Soap Bubbles and much much more. Purrrfect book to leave on the coffee table for others to glance at and know you love both cats and art.

[Jessica Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this cover to cover because I felt like I should since I got it for free from Tarcher Perigree. I loved the pictures. The author explained her process and a lot of work goes into each one! I don’t think it’s meant to be read all the way through though haha. The text wasn’t the best. Great coffee table book.

[Vince · Rating 2 out of 5]

High-end photoshopping. Some of these are humorous but there is only so much you can do with this technique. Pretty quickly they become repetitious. Many of the cat "poses" are used over and over again and basically ditto with the image descriptions.

[Rob Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Above average coffee table book because every page is the same gag but it's a delightful gag, making it perfect for briefly entertaining your visitors. This also makes it kind of tedious to read straight through.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now have another favorite book! Going to keep this one close by. It will always make me smile. Thank you!

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's better than art history and cats?

[Christine Myres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enormously entertaining, including the text. Brilliant concept!