What is Elephant Art?

Elephant Tao in Action

Elephants are sentient beings and if they apply paint unaided on a canvas then the result should be given due consideration as art. What an elephant produces is abstract art and like all abstract art, it is open to interpretation. Whether it has meaning or not, whether it has intrinsic beauty and desirability or not, is in the eyes of the beholder.

The fact is that art by elephants has an immediate visual, aesthetic appeal. Paintings that are executed by sentient beings will always elicit a response because I believe that we recognise in them something fundamental. When I study a painting by an elephant I see something awesome and primeval.

I am certain that our elephant artists know what they are doing when they paint. After I have handed the loaded paintbrush to them, they proceed to paint in their own distinctive style, with delicate strokes or broad ones, gently dabbing the bristles on the paper or with a sweeping flourish, vertical lines or arcs and loops, ponderously or rapidly and so on. No two artists have the same style.

Some time ago I was browsing an international online art forum that has over 400 active artist members. I joined in the forum when the subject “What is art?” was posed as a serious question to members and I asked everyone if they considered art by elephants to be art. My question lead to a heated debate with some (rather conservative I feel) members refusing to consider any creation other than by a human as worthy of the title ‘art’, while the majority view was that indeed an intelligent animal is capable of creation and that their finished product is no less ‘art’ than that produced by any human, intelligent or not. And at that I rest my case.

Published In: What is Elephant Art? > The Value of Authentic Elephant Art

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