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  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [monkeywire] Abstract Art by Congo the Chimp Goes to Auction
  • Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 10:24:20 -0400

Abstract Art by Congo the Chimp Goes under Hammer
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4538877

Wed 11 May 2005

By Sherna Noah, PA Arts Correspondent

A chimpanzee’s abstract paintings are going under the hammer at a top auction house.

The animal, named Congo, produced the art in 1957, when he was three years old.

It will now be sold alongside work by the likes of Andy Warhol, Renoir and the Chapman Brothers.

But the sale, next month, will not be the first time that Congo’s work has been in the limelight.

He produced 400 drawings and paintings between the age of two and four in the late Fifties.

As well as being the subject of a number of studies, Congo’s paintings were included in an exhibition of chimpanzee art at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

Experts reacted to the display in 1957, Paintings by Chimpanzees, with a mixture of scorn and scepticism.

Picasso is thought to have framed one of Congo’s works on a wall in his studio after being presented with it as a gift.

Congo was also a popular guest on Zoo Time, the Fifties TV programme presented by celebrated animal behaviourist Dr Desmond Morris.

His experiments with Congo convinced the former London Zoo curator, who later became famous for his classic television series The Naked Ape, that chimpanzees could understand some of the elements behind human art.

The collection of three works by the “Cezanne of the ape world” are estimated to fetch £800 in Bonhams Modern and Contemporary sale in London on June 20.

Congo’s brightly coloured swirls and shapes are painted with tempera on paper.

His paintings are said to resemble the style of abstract expressionism.

Congo quickly learnt how to handle a brush and pencils, instead of knocking them over or trying to eat them.

He always painted within the boundaries of the sheet of paper, never allowing the paint to spill over the edge.

Congo also appeared to know when he had finished a painting – by refusing to pick up his brush or pencil over the work.

Howard Rutkowski, director of modern and contemporary art at Bonhams, said: “I would sincerely doubt that chimpanzee art has ever been auctioned before.

“I don’t think anybody else has been crazy enough to do this. I’m sure other auction houses think this is completely mad.

“This might put Congo in the pantheon.”

Bonhams said: “Paintings by apes may be seen as humorous or as a derisive commentary on modern art. However, Morris’s studies were a serious attempt to understand chimpanzees’ ability to create order and symmetry as well as to explore, at a more primeval level, the impetus behind our own desires for artistic creativity.”




  • [monkeywire] Abstract Art by Congo the Chimp Goes to Auction, Carrie McLaren, 05/11/2005

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