Animal Art Essay

From December 16, 1997 to January 10, 1998 a most unusual art exhibit was on display at the Terrain Gallery in San Francisco. What was unusual about the art is that it was claimed to be expressions of life "as seen through the eyes, emotions and imaginations of two lowland gorillas! . . . The artwork on display [included] a number of paintings (acrylic on canvas) representing a favorite creative and emotional outlet for gorillas Koko and Michael."⁽¹⁾

Exhibiting art that has been created by non-human animals is new to the art world and to human culture. In fact, it has only been in the past few decades that note has been taken of what appears to be artistic expressions of primates. In 1951 Paul Schiller observed a female chimpanzee, Alpha, who would rather draw than eat. If there were figures already on a piece of paper she would fill in missing lines or add marks that would "balance" the figures.⁽²⁾ Following this work, Desmond Morris studied the drawing behavior of chimpanzees, including Congo. Congo loved both drawing and painting, and would scream in rage if he was interrupted before the picture was finished. Like many human artists, Congo went through phases where he was intrigued by different techniques and not by just a single stereotyped technique. Like Alpha, Congo was also influenced by what was already on the paper.⁽³⁾ It has only been recently, 1980, that the doodling of elephants have been recognized by many observers to be "lyrical, energetic, and beautiful." ⁽⁴⁾

But is it Art? Does it spring forth from an intelligence that wants to communicate its emotions, feelings, and its view on life? Is it a representation of hues, lines, and shapes that are placed in a manner that is pleasing to the eye and/or brings out an emotional response? If the answer to those questions is yes, then another more important question must be asked. What change must that bring about how we as human animals must now relate with the non-human, the member of another species?

According to the great English art critic John Ruskin, art consists of "one soul talking to another."⁽⁵⁾ Traditionally, it is taught that animals do not have what is referred to as a soul and that humans do. I was taught by the church I attended that human beings understand abstract concepts and other animals don't. Carl Cohen claims that human beings are moral agents while animals do not have such moral capacities nor can they understand the difference between right and wrong which means they are not capable of moral judgements or self-legislation.⁽⁶⁾ One can come up with quite a number of perceived differences between human beings and other species that can justify the lack of equal consideration of their rights, emotions, artistic abilities, and most of all - their worth in the Universe. However, there is a growing sentiment or realization that maybe we have been too hasty in separating the species between the one that is capable of moral understanding and the ones that are not, between the one that can understand abstract concepts such as love and the ones that react only by instinct, between the one that is artistic and the ones that are non-artistic, and that our attitudes towards other species is the result of a long history of prejudice and arbitrary discrimination rather than based upon observation.⁽⁷⁾

The two gorillas, Michael and Koko, because they have learned to communicate with humans through the use of sign language, have brought into serious doubt that human beings are the only species that understand abstract concepts. Koko knows over one thousand words and Michael knows over four hundred words. They both understand several thousand English words. This in itself might not mean anything, but what does is that Koko will put together signs in order to communicate new concepts, and she will also make up signs to express new ideas and incorporates them into her vocabulary. She understands behavior concepts such as mad and obnoxious and uses appropriate sign language to describe them. The communication study made possible by these gorillas has won the support from many renowned scientists and has convinced them that characteristics, such as language, that have been thought to be a strictly human characteristic belong to other species as well.⁽⁸⁾ The two gorillas have shown that maybe animals can understand and communicate abstract concepts, and maybe it isn't a case of able to or not able to but a matter of degree.

The argument of lack of moral capability could be considered as the strongest argument against animals having the capability of true artistic expression. But Frans de Well, a primatologist at the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Lawrenceville, Georgia has spent over 20 years observing chimpanzee social life. In their social interaction, while they do not consciously sit down and philosophize on morality or about social rules and how they should be applied, the chimpanzees do apply and enforce moral behavior and will punish immoral behavior. The higher ranking males will act as policeman, walking a beat in the same manner as human police have done. The studies found that the dominant male becomes dominant, not by physical force, but by old-fashion politics. The dominant male is not the ultimate boss because he has to be careful how he disciplines, because if the mother of a disciplined chimp takes offense, well . . . let's just say he can't afford to alienate her. Other behavior which demonstrates the chimpanzees ability to make moral judgements and to self-legislate has been observed in which the females have diplomatically brought rivals together encouraging them to make up. When the rivals embrace, the whole colony celebrates the armistice.⁽⁹⁾ Koko, the gorilla, has demonstrated that she understands right from wrong. Like humans, she will even lie to avoid the consequences of her own misbehavior.⁽¹⁰⁾ She also understands good behavior. When Koko was shown the news footage of her niece, Binti Jua, rescuing the young boy that had fallen into the Brookfield Zoo's gorilla compound she was asked about Binti. Her sign language answer was "girl good."⁽¹¹⁾

Even if, one by one, the arguments for speciesism are shown to be false, the natural prejudice we have for those that are different will still be there to haunt us. It is interesting, the parallel that has historically linked racism and women's rights with animal rights. In 1872 Mary Wollstonecraft, a forerunner of today's feminists, published her Vindication of the Rights of Women. Her views were considered absurd and in an attempt to show how ridiculous her views were on the rights of women, Thomas Taylor, a Cambridge Philosopher, anonymously wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes. He attempted to carry her arguments to their logical conclusion: If the arguments for women's equality were sound than that line of reasoning should hold for animals also. Because he felt that it was absurd to consider the rights of animals then it followed that it was equally absurd to apply those same arguments for women. With women's suffrage the issue faded away until the early 1970s when the rights for blacks and women became a political issue.⁽¹²⁾

The resistance that women faced in gaining recognition for their contributions to art is not that different than the resistance that is given to accepting that the art that is done by animals can be true art. It wasn't until the early 1900's that Mary Cassett, one of the first women to be considered an artist, was accepted. Even today she is not mentioned in many of the art books even though the recognition of her art was a significant paradigm shift.

Until Koko and Michael, the art that had been done by animals could not be considered incontrovertibly representational drawings. However, those that were respected as authorities on abstract expressionism, without knowing who the artist was, viewed them as genuine works of art. Jerome Witkin, a professor of art at Syracuse University, said that the drawings by Siri, an elephant, were "very, very beautiful. They are so positive and affirmative and tense, the energy is so compact and controlled, it's just incredible. This piece is so graceful, so delicate, I can't get most of my students to fill a page like this." Witkin compared Siri's art work with that of Willem de Kooning. When they were shown to Kooning, his wife, Elaine, who was an excellent artist in her own right, had this to say, "We felt they had a kind of flair and decisiveness and originality. . . The drawings do not have a random quality. They are not accidental. They have the same kind of rhythm and verve one sometimes observes in the little dance steps [of] elephants . . ."⁽¹³⁾

After learning that the art that he had praised had been done by an elephant, Jerome Witkin wasn't disappointed or embarrassed. He said, "I'm even more impressed. Our egos as human beings have prevented us for too long from watching for the possibility of artistic expression in other beings."⁽¹⁴⁾ Desmond Morris came to a similar conclusion, "Both man and the apes have an inherent need to express themselves aesthetically."⁽¹⁵⁾ It appears that animals, as well as humans, enjoy art for art's sake.

In 1992, the renowned scientist Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg wrote a story about a household robot named Andrew. The robot turned out to be unique when it became evident that the robot was self aware and had consciousness. It was the art created by the robot that established that he had become sentient. The robot could take a piece of wood and create an intricate carving with ingenious patterns based on his study of the wood and its grain, or create a figurine that blended naturally with the grain and that seemed to come to life. When asked why he created the art, Andrew explained that it was because he enjoyed doing it. The story continues with Andrew eventually gaining his freedom and the rights enjoyed by humans.

Interestingly, Dr. Francine Patterson and Wendy Gordon use the art of the gorillas to help make a similar case for the personhood of gorillas. Koko and Michael have not only created art that could be classified as abstract expressionism, but they have produced paintings and drawings that Patterson and Gordon claim as representational.⁽¹⁶⁾ The art may not be a paradigm shift in the art medium that is used, but it is a large paradigm shift as to who is considered an artist. The art of these animals tends to prove that animals may have an emotional and expressive range that reveals them to be self-aware individuals that are sentient. Their art will bring about what I believe will be one of the biggest paradigm shifts on how we as humans view the world and the species we share it with. Not only does this paradigm shift affect the art world, but it validifies art in a truly magical way. It is art that proves and creates a sublime interspecies bond.

	"Stink Gorilla More" 16 x 16 acrylic on canvas 1983 Michael's teacher Tyler brought a bouquet of flowers, picked on the grounds of the Foundation, as a still life for Michael to paint. The gorillas use the sign stink to mean flower as well as odor. The bouquet was large, so Michael signed more in titling his work.

	"Apple Chase" 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas 1983 Michael had a dog named Apple, with whom he loved to play "chase." He executed the painting from memory using black and white pigments, the color of Apple's coat, though he had a large selection of colors to choose from.

	"Anger" 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas 1984 This was the result when Michael was asked to paint his interpretation of the emotion "anger"

	"Myself" 20 x 16 acrylic on canvas 1983 This rainbow of color is Michael's self-portrait. Interestingly, his painting of his teacher, Tyler, was almost identical. His painting "Gorilla" used the same palette.

A Sampling of Siri's Art

End Notes

2. Shiller, Paul H., "Figural Preferences in the Drawings of a Chimpanzee," Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 44 (1951): 101-111 quoted in Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 202.

3. Morris, Desmond, Animal Days (London: Jonathan Cape, 1979): 197-198, quoted in Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 202.

4. Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 205.

5. Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 49.

6. Cohen, Carl, "The Case Against Animal Rights" in Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, ed. Louis P. Pojman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1989): 511-512.

7. Singer, Peter, "The Case for Animal Liberation" in Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, ed. Louis P. Pojman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1989): 507.

8. Patterson, Francine (Penny), letter to members of The Gorilla Foundation (1998).

9. Cowley, Geoffrey. "The Roots of Good and Evil," Newsweek, 26 February 1996, 52-53.

10. Patterson, Francine and Wendy Gordon, "The Case for the Personhood of Gorillas", http://www.gorilla.org/Papers/personhood.html.

11. "Brookfield's Hero is Koko's Niece," http://www.koko.org/Happening/brookfield.html.

12. Salt, Henry S., Animal Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress (New York, 1892; reprint, Clarks Summit, PA: Society for Animal Rights, 1980, Preface by Peter Singer), vii-x, 4, 5 (page citations are to the reprint edition).

13. Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 41-42, 47-48.

14. Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 44.

15. Morris, Desmond, The Biology of Art: A study of the Picture-Making Behavior of the Great Apes and Its Relationship to Human Art (New York: Knopf, 1962): 151 quoted in Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 43.

Bibliography

Asimov, Isaac and Robert Silverberg, The Positronic Man (New York: Doubleday, 1992).

Cohen, Carl, "The Case Against Animal Rights" in Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, ed. Louis P. Pojman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1989): 511-512.

Cowley, Geoffrey. "The Roots of Good and Evil," Newsweek, 26 February 1996, 52-53.

Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 41-49.

Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 205.

Microsoft Bookshelf, 1996-1997 Edition, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, 1996.

Morris, Desmond, Animal Days (London: Jonathan Cape, 1979): 197-198, quoted in Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 202.

Morris, Desmond, The Biology of Art: A study of the Picture-Making Behavior of the Great Apes and Its Relationship to Human Art (New York: Knopf, 1962): 151 quoted in Kowalski, Gary, The Souls of Animals (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1991): 43.

Patterson, Francine (Penny), letter to members of The Gorilla Foundation (1998).

Patterson, Francine and Wendy Gordon, "The Case for the Personhood of Gorillas", http://www.gorilla.org/Papers/personhood.html.

Salt, Henry S., Animal Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress (New York, 1892; reprint, Clarks Summit, PA: Society for Animal Rights, 1980, Preface by Peter Singer.

Shiller, Paul H., "Figural Preferences in the Drawings of a Chimpanzee," Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 44 (1951): 101-111 quoted in Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals ( New York: Delacorte Press, 1995), 202.

Singer, Peter, "The Case for Animal Liberation" in Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, ed. Louis P. Pojman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1989): 507.

Turner, Robyn Montana, Mary Cassatt (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1992).

"Stink Gorilla More"

"Apple Chase"

"Anger"

"Myself"

A Sampling of Siri's Art

End Notes

Bibliography