Monet of monkey world
Congo’s talent was discovered by Desmond Morris in 1956 during a study at London Zoo.
The first time Morris gave the chimp a pencil and a piece of card, he noted Congo’s first line “wandered a short way and stopped. Would it happen again? Yes, it did, and again and again”.
Morris said: “Congo was a genius. He was the Leonardo of chimp painting.”
Then Morris gave Congo paints. He said: “Initially it was splish splosh, with no direction. He would take the colours I gave him in pots and mix them up into brown. So I started to give him pots of colour in random order.”
This seemed to do the trick. “He was experimenting with forms, especially the form of a fan, balancing compositions, creating repeated motifs and experimenting with colour juxtaposition.” The chimp, whose style was described as abstract impressionism, continued to progress, completing more than 400 works. He was very possessive about his art – if someone tried to take a piece away before he had finished, he would, apologies, go ape.
Congo appeared regularly on Morris’s TV programme from London Zoo, called Zoo Time.
An exhibition of his work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1957 sold many pieces. On seeing one of Congo’s paintings, Salvador Dalí said: “The hand of the chimpanzee is quasi-human. The hand of Jackson Pollock is totally animal.”
After his death in 1964 from tuberculosis, Congo’s work became even more valuable.
In 2005 three of his works were auctioned by Bonhams for more than £20,000, more popular than lots of Renoir and Andy Warhol.
Morris said: “Watching him paint was like watching the birth of art.”