This article aims at analyzing the genre features of the 20th century animalistic art as a special, original phenomenon of Russian artistic culture. There are highlighted the aspects that make up its content basis. The author considers the issues of human perception of an animal, attitude to it, the system of views on the world of flora and fauna, the methods of interpretation of animals and birds. Together, they form the specific characteristics of animalistic art, which appeared in their organized and integral form in the 20th century. The article is relevant because the relationship between human and nature is being more and more re-evaluated, which is why the ideological features and the system of views of the 20th century artists are getting increasingly important (in particular, in the historical and artistic aspect).

Animalistic art, having become noticeable as a genre already in the 18th century, passed through the entire 19th century, and crystallized in the 20th century in the most characteristic, typical features in various types of fine arts (graphics, painting, sculpture and their varieties). There is no doubt that among other genres of fine art, animalistic art is an original visual and plastic phenomenon that is fundamentally different from the art that depicts a person. The article notes that the complexity of animalistic art lies in the properties of human perception, which is prone to subjective evaluation and, accordingly, gives an animal human traits. The principle of “imitation” of nature, the study of nature, being constantly followed by artists, pointed to the overcoming of the subjective moment and became the leading one in composing the figurative concept of an animal.