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Pierre Brassau was a Swedish artist and
Avantgarde artist Pierre Brassau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brassau, Pierre 1960s animal births 1960s hoaxes Art by primates Hoaxes in Sweden Individual animals in Sweden Individual chimpanzees Nonexistent people used in hoaxes Swedish painters Swedish satire
Pierre Brassau was a Swedish artist and chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
who was the subject of a 1964 hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
perpetrated by Åke "Dacke" Axelsson, a journalist at the Swedish tabloid ''Göteborgs-Tidningen
''Expressen'' (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden, the other being ''Aftonbladet''. ''Expressen'' was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or "''Expressen'' to your rescue".
...
''. Axelsson came up with the idea of exhibiting a series of paintings made by a non-human primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
, under the pretense that they were the work of a previously unknown French artist named "Pierre Brassau", in order to test whether critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
s could tell the difference between true avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
and the work of a chimpanzee.
"Pierre Brassau" was Peter, a four-year-old common chimpanzee from Sweden's Borås Djurpark
Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010.
Geography
Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...
(i.e., Borås Zoo, condensed to "Brassau"). Axelsson had persuaded Peter's 17-year-old keeper to give the chimpanzee a brush and paint. After Peter had created several paintings, Axelsson chose the best four and arranged to have them exhibited at the Gallerie Christinae in Göteborg, Sweden
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
.
While one critic prophetically observed that "only an ape could have done this", most praised the works. Rolf Anderberg of the ''Göteborgs-Posten
''Göteborgs-Posten'' (lit. "The Gothenburg Post"), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden.
History and profile
''Göteborgs-Posten'' was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1 ...
'' wrote, "Brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with clear determination. His brush strokes twist with furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer." After the hoax was revealed, Anderberg insisted that Peter's work was "still the best painting in the exhibition". A private collector bought one of the works for US$90 ().
In 1969, Peter was transferred to Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It is one of the UK's largest zoos at . The zoo has a total land holding of approximately .
Chester Zoo is operate ...
in England.
See also
*Joachim-Raphaël Boronali
Joachim-Raphaël Boronali was a fictitious Italian painter created as an invention of writer and critic Roland Dorgelès who created paintings on canvas by tying a paintbrush to the tail of a donkey named Lolo.
A painting by the donkey, '' (Suns ...
* List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* Bam Bam, an orangutan, played Precious on the soap opera ...
References
External links
Avantgarde artist Pierre Brassau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brassau, Pierre 1960s animal births 1960s hoaxes Art by primates Hoaxes in Sweden Individual animals in Sweden Individual chimpanzees Nonexistent people used in hoaxes Swedish painters Swedish satire