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Elephant Art.

Big Les

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I was under the impression that only human beings had the capacity to conceptualise abstract ideas - a prerequisite for the creation of true "art".

Apparently not...
 
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Elephants aren't the only ones

Captive chimpanzees, monkeys, and gorillas have all produced drawings or paintings. Congo and Betsy had a "two-chimp show" in 1957 at London's Institute of Contemporary Art, followed a year later by a "one-chimp show" by Congo. Almost all paintings sold in those shows. (Congo was known to throw tantrums when his pencils were taken away.)

Bower birds do nice work, too.

See Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee.

However, the article claimed the paintings were self-portraits, as well as "flowers and even an elephant's own depiction of the Thai flag." Something tells me, if you asked the elephants what they were doing, they'd say, "I was swinging this thing around with my trunk. I like swinging things with my trunk."

It took a human brain to call it a self-portrait.
 
Ryan O'Dine said:
Captive chimpanzees, monkeys, and gorillas have all produced drawings or paintings. Congo and Betsy had a "two-chimp show" in 1957 at London's Institute of Contemporary Art, followed a year later by a "one-chimp show" by Congo. Almost all paintings sold in those shows. (Congo was known to throw tantrums when his pencils were taken away.)

Bower birds do nice work, too.

See Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee.

However, the article claimed the paintings were self-portraits, as well as "flowers and even an elephant's own depiction of the Thai flag." Something tells me, if you asked the elephants what they were doing, they'd say, "I was swinging this thing around with my trunk. I like swinging things with my trunk."

It took a human brain to call it a self-portrait.
Click to expand...


I used to have a class at a local primate habitat, which includes a gorilla. The professor asked us to look through a pile of hundreds of his finger paintings to find the best ones to send to some gallery in New York which had requested them. They looked like entirely random, abstract things to me.
 
ImaginalDisc said:
They looked like entirely random, abstract things to me.
Click to expand...


Exactly how I would describe most "modern art". :p

Monkeys are not becoming more like people. People are becoming more like monkeys.

-Andrew

EDIT. Apparantly this monkey can't spell...
 
A convict who became a painter in prison related how he stored his canvasses in a barn on the property. He found one had been thoroughly covered by pigeon droppings.
At first, he was going to just throw it away, but on a whim included it in a showing. It sold for several hundred dollars....
 
this is interesting...the painting is definitely an elephant...way beyond anything i have ever seen any animal do. it sounds like they are saying the teacher guides the brush until the elephant learns by rote. even this sounds very suspicious to me. reminds me of the father who had the really young daughter who critics were heralding as a brilliant painter until they found out he was the one doing the painting (link)...but anyway, my point is, possibly the ones that look good were the ones the teacher "helped" on and probably when the elephant paints in public, it is having an "off day." i could be wrong but i am highly suspicious
 
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Experts believe that the elephants memorize the image which they can then 'paint by rote' over and over again.

It is not known if the elephants are aware they are painting themselves.

So basically they've just memorised certain ways to move a paint brush.
 
There are ways that you can test whether an animal has self-awareness or not. For example, if you put a two-year-old human in front of a mirror with a spot on her face, when she sees the spot she will touch her own face to examine it. An animal without self-awareness will touch the mirror.

I don't know if something like this has been done with the elephants in question.
 
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