October 16, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Some art patrons in Des Moines now boast of original paintings by artists named Kanzi, Azy, and Panbanisha. The artists favor abstracts, usually in bright colors. Their methods are unconventional, but then again, so are they. The artists are apes.
The Great Ape Trust of Iowa, a nonprofit group that studies apes and helps conserve their natural habitats, began selling artwork by chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas last fall for the “Apes Helping Apes” project.
The fund-raising effort, modeled on a similar one at the Houston Zoo, included a monthlong exhibition at a local coffee shop and culminated in a sale of paintings that brought in almost $17,000 for ape research and conservation projects in countries such as Rwanda and Indonesia.
The trust’s annual budget is $3-million, most of which comes from Ted Townsend, a Des Moines businessman and philanthropist.
Al Setka, director of communications at the Great Ape Trust, said last year he and others were surprised when most of the paintings sold out in a matter of days.
He expects this year’s exhibition and sale, to be held next month, to bring in up to $25,000. He also says the group will sell some paintings in an online auction. The project has outgrown the coffee shop; the paintings will be on display at a large shopping center in Des Moines.
The apes paint on a strictly voluntary basis, says Mr. Setka, and each has his or her own style.
“The colors that are used, the selection of the utensils – sometimes they’ll paint with fingers, sometimes with brushes – just as you would paint differently than I might paint something, each ape paints a little bit differently too. And you find inspiring little things sometimes, a little attention to detail,” he says. “That’s what is exciting about it. You really don’t know what may come out of these paintings, and some of them are quite beautiful.”
Here, Panbanisha, a female bonobo, draws on a pad held by Takashi Yoshida, an ape researcher.
