Arcadian goes ape for chimp art

Arcadia resident Howard Jonathan Hong has paid about $26,000 for three paintings by the late Congo the chimpanzee, a former resident of the London Zoo who painted some 400 works during the late 1950s.

While Congo is not the only animal artist on record, his paintings, purchased Monday through the London auction house Bonhams, are thought to be the first animal art to be sold at auction. The paintings, described as “abstract,” were auctioned alongside works by Renoir and Andy Warhol -- which did not sell.

Hong, 36, an aspiring playwright and filmmaker with a day job in telecommunications technology, said Tuesday that he was on an airplane over China in late May when he saw an article in the International Herald Tribune announcing the auction. Hong said he had a “visceral reaction” to Congo’s art, which he said reminded him of favorite prints by Japanese artists Hokusai and Hiroshige.

In 1957, animal behaviorist Desmond Morris organized an exhibition of chimpanzee art at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, including Congo’s work. Picasso was among the artists who owned work by the prodigious primate, who was hailed as the “Cezanne of the ape world.” Congo died of tuberculosis in 1964.

The sale of art by a chimp, Hong said, has “the potential to send shock waves through the art community in a nihilistic, anarchistic way.”

“I was jokingly saying that if they can have minimalism, maybe this will kick off a new art form called animalism,” Hong said. “My only regret is that Congo never titled any of the works -- I think ‘Untitled’ is overused.”