Congo, the Late Chimpanzee Painter Whose Works Have Sold for Thousands, Will Have a Solo Show at a Respected London Gallery

Detractors say the splashiest
examples of abstract art look like they were done by a monkey. But
collectors go ape for them.

This winter, a collection going
on view in London is giving new meaning to these
expressions. 

Or actually, a not-so-new
meaning: The 55 paintings and drawings are by Congo, a chimpanzee
who prolifically churned out abstract art for three years in the
late 1950s. Their showing at the highly
regarded Mayor Gallery this December marks the largest show to date by
an artist who is considered to the Picasso of the simian
world. (The real Picasso purportedly is said to have hung a
Congo canvas in his studio.)

The collection belongs to
Desmond Morris, a zoologist and painter himself who first put a
pencil in Congo’s hand in 1956 while studying the creative habits
of apes. Morris, now 91, studied the chimp for three years, during
which time Congo produced over 400 works.

The researcher worked with a
number of chimpanzees at this time. None, however, were quite as
accomplished as Congo.

“No other apes were controlling
the mark making and varying the patterns as
he was,” Morris
explains in a statement. “I originally picked Congo out as one of
the more boisterous at the zoo and felt that his strong personality
would respond well to focused periods of working
together.”

What started out as scribbly
lines and splotches of paint soon turned into carefully crafted
compositions that demonstrated a formal logic without having an
obvious analog to the real world. Just as Pollack, de Kooning, and
Kline were exploring the limits of pictorial abstraction, so too
was a three-year-old chimpanzee.

Morris’s findings were collected
in his seminal 1967 book The Naked Ape: A
Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal. Congo died from
tuberculous in 1964 at the age of 10.

“I now would rather that the
paintings and drawings be made available to other collectors, to
whom I hope they will bring as much pleasure as they have to me,”
says Morris of his decision to part with his collection
now. 

He’s holding onto one painting,
though: Split Fan Pattern with Central Black Spot. The
red, black, and yellow canvas from 1957 marked the first time Congo
altered his classic fanned out pattern—a gesture apes make when
spreading out leaves for a nest—in the name of composition. In
other words, it was the first time Congo made a purely artistic
decision, revealing, by Morris’s estimation, a primal desire for
organizing visual patterns. 

This isn’t the first time Mayor
Gallery has shown Congo’s works. In 2005, a handful of the chimp’s
creations were exhibited alongside those of two other primates in a
show called “Ape Artists of the
50s.” Earlier that same
year, a trio of Congo paintings sold for over $25,000 in total at a
Bonham’s auction, exceeding estimates 20-times over and outpricing
lots from Warhol and Renoir.  

The paintings and drawings on
view this December will range in price from £1,500-6,000
($1,800-7,400). For animal art enthusiasts, it’s a rare opportunity
to purchase a piece by one of the world’s most well-regarded
non-human artists. Also available at the show is a limited edition
Catalogue Raisonné index the chimp’s oeuvre. 

“Congo the Chimpanzee: The Birth of Art” will be on view at
Mayor Gallery December 3-19, 2019.

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Sold for Thousands, Will Have a Solo Show at a Respected London
Gallery appeared first on artnet News.