Episode 489: Animal Artists

The studies caught the public's fancy, and it became something of a fad to own a piece of art created by an animal, whether it was a monkey or ape, an elephant, or some other animal.

One of the earliest big name animal artists was a chimpanzee named Congo.

Zoologist Desmond Morris, who was studying creativity in apes and humans, and who was also an artist himself, offered Congo a pencil and paper when he was two years old in 1956.

Congo enjoyed drawing and especially liked to draw circles.

When Morris eventually gave the chimp paints, Congo was even more enthusiastic.

But while he was considered a novelty, he only had one art exhibition while he was alive, a 1957 event arranged by Morris.

It wasn't until 2005 that the remaining paintings were exhibited, along with the art of some other apes, and some of them sold for thousands of dollars.

A new exhibit appeared in December of 2019 in the Mayer Gallery in London.

One interesting thing is that Morris worked with several apes to see how they drew and painted, but only Congo showed enthusiasm and skill for art.

Congo died of tuberculosis in 1964 when he was only 10 years old.