Art for Animals: Visual Culture and Animal Advocacy, 1870–1914 by J. Keri Cronin

Abstract

Reviewed by: Art for Animals: Visual Culture and Animal Advocacy, 1870–1914 by J. Keri Cronin Catherine Paulin Cronin, J. Keri – Art for Animals: Visual Culture and Animal Advocacy, 1870–1914. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018. Pp. 247. Art historian J. Keri Cronin exposes the ways that animals, history and, culture were interconnected by exploring the visuals used by animal advocacy groups in Britain and North America between 1870 and 1914. Her work is interdisciplinary, combining methods and theories from visual culture as well as critical animal studies. The focus of the book is on the later half of the nineteenth century, when the author argues that iconography was an integral, and even expected, part of animal advocacy (p. 16). Her research is based on the premise that all art, high as well as low, worked in conjunction to create a context where it was possible to discuss the role of non-human animals. The main objective is not to explore the imagery used by advocates exhaustively, nor to present an analysis of only one category of art, but rather to bring to light how different meanings could be understood from these visuals depending on the context (time and space), the individual examining the art, and the presentation medium. The author suggests that examining the visual culture that was employed by animal advocacy groups in the United States, Canada, and Britain is a good way of revisiting the issues prevalent in human-animal relations, today but also in historical contexts. Cronin also submits that it can lead to new ways of understanding the functioning of these early groups and further reveals the importance of visual culture to animal advocates. The book includes an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. It contains a list of the many beautiful illustrations found within the book at the beginning, as well as an index at the end. The first chapter, "Educate Them Artistically," serves as a background to the following sections: it presents the use and importance of pictures and visual culture by animal advocates. The second chapter brings forward the importance of "bearing witness" in animal advocacy when "many people chose to look away, to avoid eye contact, and not visually engage with a difficult sight" (p. 71). Cronin reminds us of the importance of knowing the context of creation and exhibition for documentary-type visuals and discusses the "politics of sight" (or who is allowed to see what) (pp. 80–83, 92–94). She demonstrates how advocates aimed to stop the "cultural invisibility" of certain activities by using new technologies such as increasingly accessible photography (pp. 85–92). The third chapter is not concerned with the "truth-telling" inspired by documentary images but rather by the "sympathetic imagination": the creation of meaning and the discussions brought about by the [End Page 479] diffusion of animal autobiographies as well as drawings, cartoons. and paintings of animals using various artistic techniques (pp. 100–129). The fourth chapter reflects on advocacy in public space. Public art such as the monument to the "Brown Dog" used in vivisection experiments, the involvement of public figures, campaigns, public protests, and exhibits all drew attention to animal advocacy groups and the animals they aimed to protect and defend, making them increasingly visible. The author therefore reminds us that "the proper treatment of nonhuman animals in the modern world was negotiated in very public sites" (p. 166). The use of visuals in public space was of the utmost importance to help make visible what was otherwise imperceptible to others. However, advocacy could also take place inside of the home; a point which is explored by the author in chapter 5. Decorating the drawing room to the taste of activist owners was a statement to visitors, but the context of the home led to certain visuals feeling less intimidating and could therefore allow for a reduction of meaning (p. 189). The homes used as spaces for animal advocacy were also dominated by the middle class: links are drawn by the author between proper family values, domesticity, motherhood, civility, and animal advocacy (p. 189). Through this first look at how visual culture is historically deployed by animal advocacy...