A selection of paintings from this period were exhibited at the ICA, driving a flurry of interest amongst collectors including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read and the Duke of Edinburgh. Morris saw this progress as evidence of primates’ – and therefore man’s - innate urge to make and play with visual patterns and was able to observe the intense pleasure that Congo derived from the sessions. Morris’ efforts were rewarded and approximately 70 paintings were created during what he describes as Congo’s ‘peak phase’, in which the chimp began to experiment with balancing forms, creating repeated motifs and elaborating on what had become his familiar ‘fan’ pattern. “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.” “No other apes were controlling the mark making and varying the patterns as he was,” Morris recalls. Morris, whose research methods were extremely rigorous, worked with a number of other apes over the years, but none exhibited Congo’s ability to focus. The Mayor Gallery’s exhibition of some 55 paintings, pastels and by the chimp will be the last opportunity to acquire work by Congo, who made some 400 artworks during the experimental three-year period. Surrealist artist and zoologist Desmond Morris is selling his private collection of paintings and drawings by Congo the chimpanzee, with whom he famously worked from 1956-1959, observing and recording the ape’s interest in creating ‘art for art’s sake’ and sharing his findings with the public through books and television. “It is the work of Congo, not that of the prehistoric cave artists, that can truly be said to represent the birth of art.
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