MODERN ARI? RAIS!

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33794, 17 March 1975, Page 17

MODERN ARI? RAIS!

BUFFALO (New York). March If Paintings by 10 rats have been sold at an art exhibition in Buflalo. Neu York. Some ot the p.iint ings went for as much as SUSIS. Dr Richard Cimbalo. chairman of the Rosary Hill College psychology department, sponsored the exhibition to raise money for equipment for the school's laboratory. He said that the rats were coaxed with little pieces of food. The rats, uhich uere each given names of celebrities. all had their oun distinctive style. Howard Cosell in particular had an interesting pattern. So did Columbo. “Some are very delicate and some are very bold,” Dr Cimbalo said. “One painting, entitled 'Bodies,' has seven human figures together in one picture. It’s sort of eerie.” The rats paint by grabbing with their front paus a brush extended Into their cages and moving it over the canvas. The rats worked at painting for as long as 20 or 30 seconds at a time. “It's an attempt to familiarise the students with instrumental conditioning techniques in a first-hand wav,” Dr Cimbalo said. “It teaches them about the psychology of creativity and learning.” But it might also teach people something about Dr Cimbalo. “People have been looking at me strangely,” he said.