Untitled

Before you start reading this description, tap the painting and admire it extra carefully this time. What is your reaction to this piece? The style has been called “lyrical abstract impressionism.” It is quite an amazing painting: complex yet primitive, impulsive yet harmonious, fun and captivating. No wonder the artist was included in an auction along with Renoir’s and Warhol’s paintings. Three of his works were sold for over US$26,000 while the other two artists’ works did not sell. Furthermore, Congo, the painter, did this before he died (of course not after, since dead people can’t paint…) at ten years of age. Yes, before he was eleven years old, he created works to be displayed alongside recognized masters of art! I don’t know how old you are, but what were you doing at Congo’s age?

The scary thing is that (yes, I kind of lied) he did die at the age of 10 but he was not a “person.” Congo was a chimpanzee. (What did you expect? A zombie?) The chimp started to paint at the age of two after Desmond Morris, zoologist and author of the famous book The Naked Ape, offered him a pencil. Soon he was not only addicted to drawing but in fact displayed a natural talent. If Morris scribbled something on one side of a piece of paper, Congo would balance it by sketching something on the other side. If a color was added to one side, he would use it on the other; thus revealing an understanding of symmetry and balance. If you think that one could confuse these patterns with some kind of artistic tendency (clearly impossible for something other than a human to possess), ponder this: Congo would work with focus on a piece. If someone tried to take away a painting that he considered incomplete, he would start screaming and throwing a fit. If given a piece that he considered completed, despite someone trying to persuade him otherwise, he refused to add to it.

My questions: Doesn't this reveal an awareness of his work? Is art exclusive to humans? Why?

- Artur Deus Dionisio