Monkey Painting

  • Thierry Lenain
Reaktion Books, £14.95/$24.95
Is art a human invention or an instinct shared with other animals? The work of primate painters this century has been analysed, debated, shown in galleries and sold for high prices. Joni the chimpanzee, seen here with the Russian scientist Nadjeta Kohts in 1913, was the first to be seriously studied. A later chimp called Washoe (see the review above) apparently claimed in sign language that she liked red best because it was beautiful. Is this all just creative play? The ethologist Desmond Morris, who contributes a foreword to Monkey Painting by Thierry Lenain (Reaktion Books, £14.95/$24.95) believes that apes are expressing a primitive aesthetic sense. Read this intriguing account, look at the pictures and decide for yourself.