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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.”