Cat and Canary

Will Barnet (1911 – 2012, American) “Cat and Canary” - This work of art is titled, designated “Artist’s Proof”, and signed along the lower margin. The 11.25 x 16-inch sheet has been matted and placed in a 16.25 x 20.25-inch black metal frame. The popular image was created in the early 1970’s and has been re-issued and reproduced since then. It features a black cat with yellow eyes lounging next to a canary drinking out of a water bowl on a brown, orange, and grey geometrical background done in simple clean lines. The little canary is taking no chances, keeping its eye on the cat while it sneaks a drink of the cat’s water.

Will Barnet was an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds. His earliest works were influenced by expressionism; these were followed by abstract works in the 1950s and 1960s, and finally evolved into more figurative works of silhouetted forms set against geometrically designed backgrounds. Barnet’s work may be found in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.