The Elephant Artist
Arts — POSTED BY Cosmo on November 24, 2009 at 11:41 amPictures which were painted by elephants have gone on display at an Edinburgh gallery.
Art graduate Victoria Khunapramot, 26, has brought the paintings from Thailand to the Dundas Gallery on Dundas Street.
They include “self-portraits” by Paya, who is said to be the only elephant to have mastered his own likeness.
Paya is one of six elephants whose keepers have taught them how to hold a paintbrush in their trunks. They drop the brush when they want a new colour.
Mrs Khunapramot, from Newington, said: “Many people cannot believe that an elephant is capable of producing any kind of artwork, never mind a self-portrait.
“But they are very intelligent animals and create the entire paintings with great gusto and concentration within just five or 10 minutes – the only thing they cannot do on their own is pick up a paintbrush, so it gets handed to them.
“They are trained by artists who fine-tune their skills, and they paint in front of an audience in their conservation village, leaving no one in any doubt that they are authentic elephant creations.”
Elephant painting
Mrs Khunapramot, who set up the Thai Fine Art company after studying the history of art in St Andrews and business management at Edinburgh’s Napier University, said it took about a month to train the animals to paint.
Elephant expert Dr Joyce Poole, who has studied the animals for 30 years, said she owned an elephant painting but had not come across animals painting their own images.
The Oslo-based scientist said: “I have seen elephants painting, but it was very free-flow.
“It’s certainly capable of drawing an elephant, and could be trained, but might not really understand what it was doing.”
Tags: art, brain science, elephant, emotion, Environment, heart, nature
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7 Comments
This really hits home how unfairly elephants are treated given their intelligence, ironically by showing them enslaved and in captivity!
Wow Chip,
You really know your animals. An elephant on LSD…that’s a scary thought!
Have you seen the Avian Einsteins video? Its pretty extraordinary to see the true potential of these normally underrated animals…http://www.brainwaving.com/2009/11/25/avian-einsteins/
Elephants recognize themselves in mirrors:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mirror-elephant.html
http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/pdf_attachments/PlotniketalPNAS.pdf
http://www.pnas.org/content/103/45/17053/suppl/DC1 <=== with videos
Earlier studies by John Lilly suggest the same is true with Dolphins and replications have also been done with (certian) primates.
Siamese Fighting Fish might seem to display self-recognition, but probably not:
http://www.sacredheart.edu/download/350_sample2.doc
However Octopus might indeed recognize themselves (my own frequent scuba diving observation as well):
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/smarts.php
Regarding elephant art and possibly reenforcing Victoria's lovely work:
http://www.elephantartgallery.com
Lucy and I played with painting elephants in Northern Thailand. Indeed these are amazing creations. One painting recently sold for more than $1m via Christies.
But we fear these works are a case of Clever Hans:
http://www.skeptics.org.uk/article.php?dir=articles&article=clever_hans.php
Here's photo's whereby both Lucy and I derived such a conclusion:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=cannon.lucy&target=ALBUM&id=5408693870513899569&authkey=Gv1sRgCOjs98zqzZDgTQ&feat=email
Finally, and perhaps more controversially, in 1962 an elephant may have died from respiratory arrest after a massive LSD injection … or maybe not:
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_history4.shtml
Chip and Lucy
I followed up your references Chip and Lucy. thanks for that. I’m an artist and have long been skeptical about these ‘self portraits’ and other so called art coming out of Thailand. The Elephant Art Gallery (TEAG)link you gave is the only genuine one where I could find the real story and then I googled it and came up with THIS absolutely brilliant expose of the self portrait myth that is an interview with the owner and founder of TEAG.
They explain why that stuff is “crap” but that elephants can paint using their own volition (which is quite different). Most interesting from an artist’s perspective and really well written by people who have worked with elephant artists for ten years apparently.
Go to http://www.inklessmagazine.com. Long interview – see the answer to the question “What is elephant art”. Very revealing. I’m sold!