The “Museum”

The only source online about feline aesthetic expression:The Museum of Non-Primate Art (MONPA). It has a “wing” dedicated to “Why Cats Paint.” There are also sections on “Why Cats Dance” and “Bird Art.” The site offers an online cat art gallery, a brief history of cat painting, tips on how you can encourage your cat to paint, methods for determining your cat’s creative potential, and 2 video clips of a documentary in production about painting cats, featuring a cat artist at work.

About MONPA:
‘Well-known’ Art historian and animal philanthropist Dr. Peter Husard founded the Museum of Non- Primate Art in the mid 1970’s in England, and he and a team of experts studied the digging pattern of moles and the flying formations of birds as performance art. Although there are ‘numerous’ branches of the MONPA throughout the world, their facilities are not open to the public.

The Book

To start, there is a book on feline aesthetics, the only one of its kind, still in print in paperback, by Burton Silver and Heather Busch

Above: cover of Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics by Heather Busch and Burton Silver, published in the US in 1994 by Ten Speed Press,The book claims the first documentation of feline art was when archaeologists excavated rolled papyrus scrolls with clear paw marks in Egypt. Besides the history of feline art, the book profiles some notable cat artists and critiques their work, illustrated with photographs by Heather Busch.      

by Heather Busch and , published in the US in 1994 by The book claims the first documentation of feline art was when archaeologists excavated rolled papyrus scrolls with clear paw marks in Egypt. Besides the history of feline art, the book profiles some notable cat artists and critiques their work, illustrated with photographs by Heather Busch.      by Heather Busch and , published in the US in 1994 by The book claims the first documentation of feline art was when archaeologists excavated rolled papyrus scrolls with clear paw marks in Egypt. Besides the history of feline art, the book profiles some notable cat artists and critiques their work, illustrated with photographs by Heather Busch.      Above: cover of by Heather Busch and , published in the US in 1994 by The book claims the first documentation of feline art was when archaeologists excavated rolled papyrus scrolls with clear paw marks in Egypt. Besides the history of feline art, the book profiles some notable cat artists and critiques their work, illustrated with photographs by Heather Busch.    

They also have a book and a 2006 calendar on Why Paint Cats: using cats as a canvas.      

How Can I Tell if My Cat is the Next Jackson Pollock & Just Needs Encouragement?

Monpa.com can help you out! They say that one sign that cats may have creative expression is if they enjoy watching television. Other indications your cat may be artistic can be found in the frequently asked questions section of the MONPA website.

Alternately, you can try and find the out of print Test Your Cat’s Creative Intelligence: Eighteen Easy-To-Use Test Cards to Verify Your Cat’s Artistic Ability

MONPA.com states that only about 0.001% of cats will actually put paint on their paws and apply it to a surface. That’s just not encouraging at all.

Finally, before you leave monpa.com, go ahead and apply for a scholarship or research grant. Those of you who are dying to study “psychomotor disturbances including cerebral dysphoria and cephalagia in immature Spanish cats following flamenco shoulder dancing” can finally get some funding!

Now that you’ve read all of that it’s plain to see that…

It’s All A Hoax!

If what you’ve just read and the concept itself doesn’t give itself away, here are a few more reasons why one can tell this is a rather elaborate, albeit clever, tongue- in-cheek extravaganza.

First off, there is not much out there online for the feline art enthusiast to digest. If cats, dogs, horses, elephants, etc. are being artistic as much as monpa.com says, I daresay there would be many a gallery popping up online where proud pet owners display their pets’ works.

• It is a well known fact that cats were very highly esteemed in Ancient Egypt. However, all the details regarding the history of feline art in Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics are bogus. 
• There was no papyrus scroll ever found with paw prints on them. The book says the papyrus scroll is “on loan” from “Bodhead Library” in Oxford. No such library exits. They say the embalmed cats are in the “Phakat Museum” in Cairo – no such museum! It’s likely to be a clever twist on the feline Egyptian war god “Pakhet.”
• Tip: For some real background on cats in Ancient Egypt, read this succinct article in the Tour Egypt Monthly Online Magazine, or for more serious reading see The Cat In Ancient Egypt by Jaromir Malek.
• Monpa.com doesn’t offer any physical addresses of its ‘numerous’ branches.
• The site features two video clips of a cat “painting,” but something is definitely off about it. It’s still really cute, so check it out.
• Just check out their Acknowledgements page. Friends of Spider Art? Jensen Action Fund for Artistically Challenged Canines? Small Rodent Art Achievement Award Foundation? LOL!
• Also, see their pages on upcoming exhibitions such as “Termites: Their Art & Architecture”… and sponsored expeditions. such as “Cat Charmers…Biomusicologist, David Parsons will undertake an another seven month expedition to Tibet in order to work with the monastic cat charmers of Chokpuri and Lhasa.” You’ve got to give these guys some credit for originality.

What if…?

I think most of us cat-lovers would find it very whimsical if our cats could draw and paint and sculpt. When the little buggers tear up our designer curtains and shred our brand new leather couches from Bloomingdales, it was actually self-expression. It was mischief in the name of art! Well, who can get angry at that? You could just sell the “art work” to MOMA and use the cash to buy new stuff.

It is clear that cats are incredibly intelligent animals, so maybe it’s not too far-fetched to be led to believe they have creative abilities? So, for the sake of argument, what if this was the real thing? After all…

• They’re not listed on snopes.com, the leading site uncovering urban myths, nor in the Museum of Hoaxes.
• Finger - ahem, paw - paint, and a canvas aren’t usual cat supplies that most cats have access to. Who knows what untapped talent there is out there. You could have an undiscovered Purrcasso, Remeowr, or a Catavaggio in your home.
• There has been more bizarre things labeled as art. Take a look at some of the performance art today, and what’s being exhibited today in modern art. I am a great art lover and do not mean to poke fun at modern art in general. But there are a few pieces that come up which renders analyzing bird poo as art (see the Bird Art Wing on monpa.com) quite normal in comparison.

Yes, I thought the MONPA site was real at first glance. Yes, I can be very gullible! However, my prosaic conclusion is that the Museum of Non-Primate Art is a very funny hoax, along with the books. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong, as that would make cats even more awesome, if that’s possible. For me, cats are funny and engaging enough just being themselves, without making abstract paintings. But I invite you to visit monpa.com and draw your own conclusions and have a few laughs along the way. I do try to keep an open mind. Perhaps cats can paint. They just choose not to, as they have better things to do and despise getting their paws dirty. Cats have their secrets…isn’t there a tiny possibility this is one of them?

——————————————————————-

Copyright © Juli Kobayashi 2006

read the unabridged version of this article >>