Holland - Painting Monkeys
July 2003 – 3 min 43 sec
REPORT INTRODUCTION
They don’t have the talent of Van Gogh’s or Picasso but they are exhibited in galeries. Their paintings can be bought for five hundred dollars! You can meet these new painters in their workshop: Amsterdam Zoo.
COMMENTARY 1
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You’ve seen them in films and commercials. They are back, but this time fascinated with drawing and painting.
These out-of-the-ordinary painters are residents of Amsterdam zoo.
Drawing helps them to forget their life in captivity and to amuse them a little... so that they do not become too bored.
Initiating a chimpanzee, an orang-outang or a bonobo, to painting is not impossible even though some, at first, are a little clumsy. In general, you only have to show them what to do and they imitate.
A few sessions and a little advice are all that is needed to create an artist devoted to a very particular art.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
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INTERVIEW Mrs Dr Charlotte VERMEULEN - Zoologist
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I don’t think this is art in the way that we would make art. A human artist does make his art on purpose and... I think the apes, they like the action so that they like to see that there is something coming out of the pencil. So... it’s more like a small child of, let’s say, two and a half, maybe three years old.
COMMENTARY 2
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Extremely serious research, led by Professor Kortland, a specialist in apes, shows that apes, just like young children, do not draw from obligation but from pleasure.
Another observation is that a ape will never draw outside the limits of the sheet of paper.
It has also been noticed that a primate’s artistic sense is like that of a child aged 2 or 3. Like an infant, the ape will first colour in little areas before colouring the whole sheet.
INTERVIEW Mrs Dr Charlotte VERMEULEN - Zoologist
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Do I know which one was made by a human and which one was made by a chimpanzee? What you see with chimpanzees is quite interesting :- that they show the same development as a human child. Only, when the human child starts making certain figures at the age of two and a half, three years old, at that stage the chimpanzee and other apes stay fixated.
COMMENTARY 3
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In spite of everything, apes are able to accomplish some really astonishing things.
An exhibition has recently presented a selection of the best paintings done by some of them.
Paintings that art-lovers and collectors can buy for 500 dollars a piece.
Paintings that are impressive both for their variety and for their colour composition.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
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COMMENTARY 4
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Terbang, apparently fascinated with abstract art, can draw like this for hours without paying the slightest attention to what is going on around him...
A little disconcerting for his cell mates.
Yet again, animals are proving that we still have a lot to learn from them.
LAST PICTURE: O3’27’’
July 2003 – 3 min 43 sec
REPORT INTRODUCTION
They don’t have the talent of Van Gogh’s or Picasso but they are exhibited in galeries. Their paintings can be bought for five hundred dollars! You can meet these new painters in their workshop: Amsterdam Zoo.
COMMENTARY 1
CTL IN: 00’01’’ - CTL OUT: 00’49’’
You’ve seen them in films and commercials. They are back, but this time fascinated with drawing and painting.
These out-of-the-ordinary painters are residents of Amsterdam zoo.
Drawing helps them to forget their life in captivity and to amuse them a little... so that they do not become too bored.
Initiating a chimpanzee, an orang-outang or a bonobo, to painting is not impossible even though some, at first, are a little clumsy. In general, you only have to show them what to do and they imitate.
A few sessions and a little advice are all that is needed to create an artist devoted to a very particular art.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
CTL IN: 00’49’’ - CTL OUT: 01’02’’
INTERVIEW Mrs Dr Charlotte VERMEULEN - Zoologist
CTL IN: 01’03’’ - CTL OUT:01’25’’
I don’t think this is art in the way that we would make art. A human artist does make his art on purpose and... I think the apes, they like the action so that they like to see that there is something coming out of the pencil. So... it’s more like a small child of, let’s say, two and a half, maybe three years old.
COMMENTARY 2
CTL IN:01’26’’ - CTL OUT: 01’56’’
Extremely serious research, led by Professor Kortland, a specialist in apes, shows that apes, just like young children, do not draw from obligation but from pleasure.
Another observation is that a ape will never draw outside the limits of the sheet of paper.
It has also been noticed that a primate’s artistic sense is like that of a child aged 2 or 3. Like an infant, the ape will first colour in little areas before colouring the whole sheet.
INTERVIEW Mrs Dr Charlotte VERMEULEN - Zoologist
CTL IN: 01’57’’ - CTL OUT: 02’23’’
Do I know which one was made by a human and which one was made by a chimpanzee? What you see with chimpanzees is quite interesting :- that they show the same development as a human child. Only, when the human child starts making certain figures at the age of two and a half, three years old, at that stage the chimpanzee and other apes stay fixated.
COMMENTARY 3
CTL IN:02’24’’ - CTL OUT: 02’41’’
In spite of everything, apes are able to accomplish some really astonishing things.
An exhibition has recently presented a selection of the best paintings done by some of them.
Paintings that art-lovers and collectors can buy for 500 dollars a piece.
Paintings that are impressive both for their variety and for their colour composition.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
CTL IN: 02’42’’ - CTL OUT: 02’52’’
COMMENTARY 4
CTL IN: 02’53’’ - CTL OUT: 03’27’’
Terbang, apparently fascinated with abstract art, can draw like this for hours without paying the slightest attention to what is going on around him...
A little disconcerting for his cell mates.
Yet again, animals are proving that we still have a lot to learn from them.
LAST PICTURE: O3’27’’