Trained monkeys

1. Actually, the fascination with Congo's art stems in large part from the fact that he was untrained, a self-taught artist. There is a freshness and vitality to his work that has never been seen in classically trained chimp painters like Ujumma, Bananas, and Floyd.

2. I, too, was caught off-guard by the comparison to Hokusai. In fact, it was such an obviously moronic comparison that it made me think that purchaser Howard Hong was doing the whole thing as a stunt: Jackass for the NPR set.