Elephants have been trained to paint 'self portraits'
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Updated: 2008/04/11 AM 11:56:40
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Some elephants in Thailand have been trained to paint 'self portraits'.
Many people who have watched this video have asked the question "Is this fake??". It turns out the video is real, but the elephants have only been trained to outline and color paintings they've been taught to reproduce. They don't come up with their own representational paintings without the aid of trainers who coach them to do so.[1][2][3]
An Edinburgh gallery in 1996 featured elephant paintings was reviewed by the BBC:
"Pictures 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.
"The only thing they cannot do on their own is pick up a paintbrush, so it gets handed to them."
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.[1]
"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."
"They might not really understand what they are doing."
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."[1]
Sources:
- BBC News Elephant 'self-portrait' on show 21 July 2006.
- Video of an elephant painting an elephant
- [1] Animal experts discuss elephant painting
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- http://paintings.novica.com/elephant-art/
- http://www.elephantartgallery.com/
- Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project
- http://www.galleries.co.uk/pr/s4-07-DUNDAS-STREET-pr1.htm
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