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"SEE SLIDESHOWLong the purrrview of hobbyists and portraitists to the rich and quirky, cat art went mainstream in 2013, landing at revered institutions like the Metropolitan Museum, White Columns, and the Brooklyn Museum, all the while maintaining the genre\u2019s quirkiness through events like the Active Space\u2019s \u201CCat Painting Takedown\u201D and a medievalist\u2019s discovery of a set of inky paw prints in a 15-century manuscript. Here and meow, a selection of the most paw-some works and exhibitions of cat art from 2013.MOST HU-MEOW-NITARIAN CATS: \u201CThe Cat Show\u201D at White ColumnsWriter, artist, and cat enthusiast Rhonda Lieberman\u2019s \u201CCat Show\u201D was the runaway hit of the summer and featured feline-inspired work by over 50 artists including Cory Arcangel, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, and Marilyn Minter. During the show\u2019s run, the gallery also played host to real life rescue cats each week (from Social Tees Animal Rescue) that Lieberman named Bruce Meowman, Claws Oldenburg, Frida Kahlico, and, for that&amp;nbsp;purr-formance artist extraordinaire, Meowrina Abramovic. By the end of the exhibition, 25 cats had been adopted. The cats in residence program also continues online.&amp;nbsp;Watch ARTINFO video HERE.&amp;nbsp;BEST DRESSED KITTIES: The State Hermitage Museum\u2019s Czarist-Style Cat Portrait SeriesThough the State Hermitage Museum has long been known for its troupes of feline pest-control cats-in-residence, this year it also commissioned Uzbek artist Eldar Zakirov to create a series of ornate and rich feline portraits based on czarist-era works in the institution\u2019s collection, from a white kitty in a handsome, red court chamber herald\u2019s jacket, to another sporting the smock of a court confectioner.CREEPIEST CATS: \u201CBalthus: Cats and Girls \u2014 Paintings and Provocations\u201D at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtWhile the title \u201CCats and Girls\u201D has a deceptively child-friendly ring to it, the cats in this exhibition are definitely more creepy than cute and likely a disconcerting symbol of Balthus\u2019s pedophilic impulses. Although we were generally pretty put off by this show, we must admit that a lot of people were charmed by the 40 drawings an 11-year-old Balthus made for \u201CMitsou\u201D a book that tells the true story of finding and losing a beloved stray cat.&amp;nbsp;MOST FAMOUS CATS: The Second Annual Internet Cat Video Festival at the Walker Art CenterIt\u2019s a miracle that the world didn\u2019t end when viral kitties Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat shared the stage at the 2013 Minnesota State Fair, where the Walker Art Center\u2019s second annual Internet Cat Video Festival took place on August 28. Though Grumpy Cat prevailed, taking home the evening\u2019s top honor \u2014 which seemed to do nothing to improve his mood \u2014 we expect many more internet-famous felines will follow in his paw-steps at future editions of the marquee event on the art world\u2019s cat calendar.&amp;nbsp;Watch ARTINFO video HERE.&amp;nbsp;MOST CURSED KITTIES: \u201CDivine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt\u201D at the Brooklyn MuseumThis summer the Brooklyn Museum looked no farther than its own permanent collection to find 30 artifacts depicting domestic cats, lions, and other felines that point to the significance of the cat in ancient Egypt. A gilded sculpture of a lion-headed goddess, a bronze sphinx sculpture of King Sheshenq, and a cast bronze sculpture of a mother cat with four kittens nursing are all on view through December 2014.MOST SCHOLARLY CAT: 15th-Century Cat\u2019s Paw Prints Found on Medieval ManuscriptIn September of 2012, medieval manuscript researcher and University of Sarajevo faculty member Emir O. Filipovi? tweeted a picture of an open 15th-century manuscript very clearly marked with four cat paw prints, but it wasn\u2019t until February 2013 that the image achieved viral status, popping up everywhere from Reddit to Gawker. \u201CA truly positive aspect of the story, beside the obvious worldwide promotion of the State Archives of Dubrovnik,\u201D Filipovi? wrote after achieving viral fame, \u201Cis that the document with the paw prints is going to be featured in the Interactive Album of Medieval Paleography, which is maintained by Dr. Marjorie Burghart in Lyon, France.\u201DCATTIEST CAT ART CONTEST: \u201CCat Painting Takedown\u201D at The Active SpaceThe Bushwick gallery and studio complex hosted a competitive cat-painting session on November 24, in which more than 20 artists sought to paint the most fantastic feline they could. The results included a stylin\u2019 tabby sporting a hat and glasses, a kitten posing inside the skull of a saber-toothed tiger, a hybrid cat-bald eagle perched in a treetop, and a pair of tiny kitties smeared in blood after a decadent feast. The works were then auctioned off, with proceeds from the sales benefiting the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition.MOST CONSERVATIVE CAT ARTIST: Pet Portraitist George W. BushIn addition to the pair of perfectly generic sportraits he painted of his daughter Barbara\u2019s cat Eleanor for her apartment in New York, former U.S. President George W. Bush painted an atrocious image of a cat lying in front of a gaudy wood-paneled backdrop, its protruding front paw poorly foreshortened, and its proportions generally way-off. It\u2019s exactly the type of unimaginative and hapless artwork you\u2019d expect from the man who once said: \u201CYou can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.\u201DBEST DISEMBODIED CATS: \u201CWhisker Prints\u201D by Nina KatchadourianIn a one-week residency at the Island Press in St. Louis, Stanford-based artist Nina Katchadourian used actual cat whiskers to make a series of 17 monotype \u201CWhisker Prints.\u201D Using the whiskers as drawing stencils, Katchadourian created unique works that look like purrfect abstractions of cat-like forms.Click here to see the slideshow."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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