Desmond Morris's 1966 Vision for London's Institute of Contemporary Arts as an Adult Play Centre

In 1966, Desmond Morris, an artist and zoologist who served as curator of mammals at London Zoo since 1957, was appointed director of London's Institute of Contemporary Art (I.C.A.) ahead of its move to larger premises in the Mall. Morris, whose book The Naked Ape was published that year, had previously staged an exhibition of chimpanzee paintings at the I.C.A. in 1956, exploring aesthetic impulses in animals. In an interview with Barrie Sturt-Penrose for The Arts Review, Morris outlined plans to transform the I.C.A. into an 'adult play centre,' emphasizing experimentation on a large scale in its new gallery. He argued that modern art, freed from recording burdens by photography, was returning to an 'infantile condition' of pure expression, a positive development. Morris highlighted upcoming exhibitions on computer art and chimpanzee pictures, areas he felt commercial galleries neglected, and envisioned the I.C.A. as a nerve-centre for interdisciplinary exchange among designers, painters, and sculptors. He resigned after one year in 1967 following the bestseller success of The Naked Ape, moving to Malta to write a sequel. Decades later, Congo the chimpanzee's paintings were exhibited at Mayor Gallery in London from 3 to 19 December 2019, and Morris himself was scheduled for a show at Beaux Arts gallery in London from 14 October to 12 December 2020.