Adorable Instagram Account Captures Art-Loving French Bulldog
It’s no secret that dogs proliferate on Instagram. A fashion-savvy Shiba Inu, popularly known as @Mensweardog, has a following of 131,000 followers. The hipster Pug, Norm, captured on the account @Jermzlee, has more than 242,000 fans. And now, a gallery-going French Bulldog named Pickle is marking her territory on Instagram.
Pickle, a brindle-colored, three-year-old French bulldog, is the star of @Picklebeholding, an Instagram account and Tumblr that features the adorable canine posing in front of works of art. “This dog really loves art,” reads her bio, and it’s undeniable. Chances are, Pickle has been to more exhibitions this month than you. In just June alone, she caught everything from Lee Bul at Lehmann Maupin, to Anicka Yi at Bortolami, Jude Broughan at Churner and Churner, and Tara Donovan at Pace Gallery.
At Fitzroy Gallery’s most recent show “On the Blue Shore of Silence,” is a sculpture titled Small Flow (2013), by Win Knowlton, made of galvanized steel connected to a wavy, blue-painted steel stand. Pickle meanders over to the work and plops down in front of it, her doe eyes glancing up at her owner, Katie Howard. With a “Good job, Pickle,” Howard snaps a photo of the dog. It’s apparent the two have a well-rehearsed routine. “I try to do two days with her a month, one day visiting galleries on the Lower East Side, one day up in Chelsea” Howard told me during an afternoon I spent with them gallery hopping in the Lower East Side.
The idea to capture photos of Pickle in front of artworks started with an installation by Korakrit Arunanondchai at an opening last fall at The Suzanne Geiss Company, Howard says. There was a catwalk in the show and Pickle hopped up on it alongside a baby, inspiring a photo-taking frenzy. Howard says she didn’t think of it again until several weeks later, when she snapped a picture of Pickle at a Brie Ruais opening at Nicole Klagsbrun. “That was the first real picture I took of her with art and it clicked,” Howard says. “I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s really fun.’”
Over the past few months, Pickle has gained a following that boasts galleries such as Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Louis B. James, and artists such as Daniel Heidkamp. For Howard, it has been a way for her to stay up-to-date with what’s on—a necessary part of her job as an art consultant. In addition to frequenting art galleries, Pickle and Howard participate in therapy work through The Good Dog Foundation.
In the future, she hopes to be invited to take Pickle into museums, but for now they are enjoying the gallery scene. As for Pickle’s favorite artwork, Howard says she is curious about anything on the floor. “Especially if it is fuzzy and animal-like, she will try to sniff it.”
