Chimp Wins $10,000 Art Prize

The Humane Society of the United States held an art competition for chimpanzees. The winner was announced yesterday. Brent, a 37-year-old retired laboratory chimp who lives at Chimp Haven in Louisiana, won the top prize: $10,000 for his sanctuary!

A Chimp Haven spokeswoman said Brent was unavailable for comment Thursday. “I think he’s asleep,” Ashley Gordon said.

Brent has his own unique painting technique. He only paints with his tongue. Chimp Haven's president Cathy Willis Spraetz, says the chimps paint canvases that are held outside their enclosures.

Some other chimps use brushes or point to the colors they want on the canvas, but Brent comes up to smush pre-applied blobs of child-safe tempera paints with his tongue, she said.

“If we handed the canvas to them where it was on the inside, they might not want to hand it back,” she said. “They might throw it around and step on it.”

Cheetah, from Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida, won the second place prize of $5,000 -and an additional $5,000 as the winner of Jane Goodall's personal choice award. More
See all the submitted artworks at the Humane Society: Here.