Bunny Bonanza: In Art. In Books. In Movies. As Brands. And Just Big. (Over 80 pics!)

Above: Dieter Roth's Shit Hare (1975)

Happy Easter, Happy Bunny Day, Happy Christ Resurrection and all that. In honor of the holiday, I'm going to share with you a bunch o' bunnies. Bunnies in art, in literature, in movies, as brands and some of the biggest bunnies in the world. I had to really cull down this post or by the time you finished reading it, it'd be Christmas.

For the purpose of convenience, in this post I am referring to all rabbits and hares as Bunnies. I know that there are several differences, variations in species etc., but for ease and entertainment, today they are all Bunnies.

First off, there are so many bunny-related and bunny-inspired things out there that I must leave a large majority out of this post. But to see the hundreds of cute and not so cute bunny items and art made by talented people be sure to check etsy.com and flickr, deviant art, behance, coroflot, and other online art databases and user uploaded art sites.

Bunnies, or rabbits and hares, have been prevalent in art for centuries. Early biblical engravings and religious art often had the animal in them. Dutch and Flemish Masters frequently included them as soon to be meals in their kitchen and repast scenes.


above: Jean Baptiste-Oudry's Rabbit and Pheasant (1751)

Romantic French painters like Boucher and Fragonard often had the furry little animal in their angelic and cherubic landscapes. Being chased (or eaten) is how they were depicted in many an English hunting scene. Countless Victorian Easter cards and vintage German engraved Easter cards can still be found at many flea markets and antique stores (like the ones shown below).




Today they can be seen everywhere from handmade cutesy crafts, as advertising mascots, fun vinyl toys and in many a darker representation as well, such as Joseph Beuys' film still below.



above: Photo of Joseph Beuys’ performance How to Explain Paintings to a Dead Hare, Nov. 26, 1965

To start with, here's a little serious Bunny art for you. When I say serious, the following pieces go for thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars- if you can find an available original. Most of the names of the artists are probably fairly well known to many of you.

Bunnies By World Renowned Artists:

Albrecht Durer, german engraver and painter 1471—1528:

John James Audubon:

Henri Rousseau:

Barry Flanagan:


Andy Warhol:

Wayne Thiebaud:

Claus Oldenberg:

Jeff Koons:

Masao Kinoshita:


Bunnies by contemporary artists, illustrators and designers from all over the world:

Mark Ryden:

Luke Chueh:

Kathie Olivas:

Frank Kozik:


Kozyndan:


Darla Jackson:

Morwenna Catt:

Momoyo Torimitsu:


Kim Simonsson:

Haidee Henry:


Bunnies in Classic Literature:


Shown above:
Br'er Rabbit
Mr. Flopears
The Velveteen Rabbit
The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit (click the link for a online flip book version)
Uncle Wiggly
Rabbit from A.A. Milne's Pooh books
and, of course, Pat The Bunny

Bunnies in movies:


Shown above:
Brer Rabbit From Disney's Song of The South
Thumper from Disney's Bambi
Roger Rabbit
Harvey (The Jimmy Stewart classic)
Donnie Darko

Bunnies as brands:




Shown above:
General Mills Trix Bunny
The Playboy Bunny
The Nestle's Quick Bunny, aka the Nesquik Bunny, aka Quicky
Blue Bunny Brand
The Volkswagon Rabbit logo
Blink 182's Rabbit
Miffy, the dutch bunny (books and branded items)
Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny
Jim Benton's Happy Bunny
The Energizer Bunny
Sanrio's Melody
And the world's most fashionable rabbit, Fifi Lapin

And now for some BIG Ol' BUNNIES (or Rabbit Record Holders):
And these have all been snopes, hoax-slayer and urban legends verified. They are not photo-shopped or retouched.

Amy, the present record holder as of 2008:


Above: An average sized rabbit atop Amy, who weighs approx 49 lbs.
read the article here.



Above: Karl Smolinksy with Robert
Read the article here.

The 2006 record holder, Herr Rabbit, 22 pounds:


Also worth checking out:
Bunnylicious, a great blog of all things bunny.
Rabbits In Design
Rabbit Remix
Hopper Home Bunny Blog
Contemporary Rabbit Art

And special thanks to brandsoftheworld, artnet, artfacts, artcyclopedia, allposters, amazon and the individual artists for the use of their images.

Well, that should be enough bunny lore to keep you satisfied until next Easter!

PEEPS Peer Pressure! You Want Peeps Art? Here's Some Of The Best

above: this year's winner of the Washington Post Peep Show, Melissa Harvey's NightPeeps.

Okay Okay! I'm buckling under PEEPS Peer Pressure!

Based on the emails in my in box, everyone wants to see PEEPS art (which I was purposely tried avoiding with my previous post) .

But who am I to deny my readers? So... since so many of the contests have plenty horrendous and amateurish entries to sift through, I found a few really good ones from several different contests and from some flickr sets.

To start off with, The Washington Post has just announced the winner of their Third Annual PEEPs® show, Peeps Show III. Congratulations to Melissa Harvey of Arlington, Virgina for her winning Peep Diorama, NightPeeps (shown at the beginning of this post).

This year, there were lots of Political Peeps entries, Obama Peeps, Republican and Democratic Peeps, etc. There were also tons of American Idol Peeps and reality show entries and many based on popular tv shows like Heroes, LOST, Dexter and others. There were many versions of famous movie scenes and several recreations of big news events like the Hudson plane crash and the Octomom. A surprising amount of Mary Peepins and Peep On A Wire entries, too.

Here are some of my personal faves from the top 40 finalists from the 2009 entries into the "official" Peep Show III for the Washington Post:


above:Peepster's Kill Room by Chad Brobst & Stamatia Loverdos

Above: M.C. Escher's "RelativiPeep" by Mark Rivetti

above: Peeptown Cupcake by Jenna Huntsberger

above: Peep/Tuck by Jennifer Storozuk, Kathleen Lyons, Karen James

above: Steve Jobs Presents iPeep Nano by Sarah Kohari & Erin Mastrangelo

above: The Day The Earth Stood Peeped by Carl Cordell

You can see and vote for your personal favorite (The Peeple's Choice) from all the finalists (40 images) for the 2009 Washington Post Peep Show III here.


And some of my faves from the Twin Cities' Pioneer Press Contest (winners announced tomorrow). This was tough, there were lost of good entries into this Twin Cities Contest:

above: The Great Peepression by Jenny Updike

above: US Peepways by Gregg and Lisa Engas

above: iPeeps by Molkenbur & Canavan

above: Peepstock by Sara Marie Reinke and Tara Jordan.

above: The wreck of the Edmund Peepsgerald by Puliarf

above: two by two by Ruth Heyer

above: Peeps of the Carribean by Judy

above:Ch-ch-ch-Chia Peeps by Mary and Anne McComb

This year's winner of the 2009 Chicago Tribune's Peeps On Parade Contest:

Yet another peeps contest, whose 2009 finalists you can see is the Chicago Tribune's here


Some good Flickr Finds:

Be sure to see the University of Chicago's Peeple's Choice winners in a flickr set here, an example of which is shown above.

A few beauties from the Carroll Arts Center 1st Annual Peep Show Flickr set (admittedly from 2008):



detail:


detail:





And some other fab flickr finds:

Pink Pickled Peep:

found here on flickr.

Peeps Dress:

found here on flickr.

Okay, so there you have it. The Best Of The Prolific Preponderance Of Peeps Projects. Or My Personal Peep Picks.

If you didn't see the previous post about All Non Perishable Peeps Products For Purchase, see that here.

or check out last year's Peep Show winners here.