Sculpture Zimbo

8/11/2019 Sculpture Zimbo

1/5

Sculpture of Zimbabwe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zimbabwe Sculpture: a Tradition in Stone, Atlanta, USA, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International

Airport between concourses T and A

Stone sculpture is an art for which the African nation of Zimbabwe is well known around the world.

Modern African stone sculpture is not "traditional", although much of its subject matter has traditional

roots. There were few, if any, individual sculptors working in stone in the first half of the 20th century

but following the opening in 1957 of the Rhodes National Gallery in Salisbury, its first Director, Frank

McEwen, encouraged local artists to explore that medium. Within a few years, a group of local artists

including Thomas Mukarobgwa, Joram Mariga and his nephew John Takawira were learning the

necessary skills, mainly carving in soapstone. This budding art movement was relatively slow to develop

but was given massive impetus in 1966 by Tom Blomefield, a white South-African-born farmer of

tobacco whose farm at Tengenenge near Guruve had extensive deposits of serpentine stone suitable for

carving. A sculptor in stone himself, he wanted to diversify the use of his land and welcomed new

sculptors onto it to form a community of working artists. This was in part because at that time there

were international sanctions against Rhodesias white government led by Ian Smith, who had declared

Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, and tobacco was no longer able to generate sufficient

income. Appropriately, Tengenenge means The Beginning of the Beginning in this case of a

significant new enterprise that has lasted through to the present day.

Further details of the establishment of the "first generation" of new Shona sculptors are given in the

individual biographies of its leading members: Bernard Matemera, Sylvester Mubayi, Henry

Mukarobgwa, Thomas Mukarobgwa, Henry Munyaradzi, Joram Mariga, Joseph Ndandarika, Bernard

Takawira and his brother John. This group also includes the famed Mukomberanwa family (Nicholas

Mukomberanwa and his protegees Anderson Mukomberanwa, Lawrence Mukomberanwa, Taguma

Mukomberanwa, Netsai Mukomberanwa, Ennica Mukomberanwa, and Nesbert Mukomberanwa) whose

works have been featured worldwide. Works by several of these first generation artists are included in

the McEwen bequest to the British Museum.[1]

During its early years of growth, the nascent "Shona sculpture movement" was described as an art

renaissance, an art phenomenon and a miracle. Critics and collectors could not understand how an art

genre had developed with such vigour, spontaneity and originality in an area of Africa which had none of


2/5

the great sculptural heritage of West Africa and had previously been described in terms of the visual arts

as artistically barren.[2][3][4][5]

Fifteen years of sanctions against Rhodesia limited the international exposure of the sculpture.

Nevertheless, owing mainly to the efforts of Frank McEwen, the work was shown in several international

exhibitions, some of which are listed below. This period pre-independence witnessed the honing of

technical skills, the deepening of expressive power, use of harder and different stones and the creation

of many outstanding works. The "Shona sculpture movement" was well underway and had many

patrons and advocates.

1963 New Art from Rhodesia, Commonwealth Arts Festival, Royal Festival Hall, London

1968-9 New African Art: The Central African Workshop School, MOMA, New York (Toured in USA)

1969 Contemporary African Arts, Camden Arts Centre, London.

1970 Sculptures Contemporaine de Vukutu, Muse dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris

1971 Sculpture Contemporaine des Shonas dAfrique, Muse Rodin, Paris

1971 Gallery 101, Johannesburg

1971 Artists Gallery, Cape Town

1972 Shona sculptures of Rhodesia, ICA Gallery, London

1972 Galerie Helliggyst, Copenhagen

1972 MOMA, New York

1979 Kunst Aus Africa, Berlin. Staatlichen Kunstalle went to Bremen and Stockholm

1979 Feingarten Gallery, Los Angeles

Post-Independence[edit]

Since independence in 1980, the sculpture has continued to be exhibited in the art capitals of the world

and great acclaim has accrued to contemporary artists such as Dominic Benhura and Tapfuma Gutsa[6]

and the art form itself.

Support and encouragement has come from many sources.


3/5

Sponsors of a variety of Sculpture communities, of which those at Tengenenge [7] and Chapungu [8]

have been most influential. Further Communities have developed post-independence, for example the

Chitungwiza Arts Centre, which was an initiative involving the United Nations Development Programme

and the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education and Culture, who provided the land.

Commercial sponsors in Zimbabwe, including the Baringa Corporation, the Nedlaw Investment and TrustCorporation, Zimre Holdings Limited, BAT (who part-fund the Workshop School of the National Gallery)

and Mobil (who support the "Zimbabwe Heritage" annual exhibition at the Gallery).

The Zimbabwean Government, especially through its support for the National Gallery, which now has

regional centres in Bulawayo and Mutare.

Patrons who buy works or write forewords to catalogues for international exhibitions. Examples of well-

known individuals include Richard Attenborough, Richard E. Grant and Joshua Nkomo.

A group of specialist dealers who display the works in their Galleries worldwide and communicate their

own enthusiasm for this art form to visitors, who by viewing, purchasing and enjoying the objects spreadthat enthusiasm around.

Roy Guthrie quoted from a 1991 article in The Sunday Telegraph in his introduction to an exhibition in

South Africa [9] to remind art lovers that

"There is a widespread assumption today that art must necessarily be international.... But against this

trend one finds isolated pockets of resistance, which suggest that good art can (and perhaps must) be a

local affairthe product of a particular place and culture. And one of the most remarkable in the

contemporary world is the school of sculptors that has flourished among the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe inthe last 30 years... placed beside the dismal stuff so beloved of the international art bureaucracyas

they were in the 1990 Biennalethese African carvings shine out in a desolate world."

In spite of increasing worldwide demand for the sculptures, as yet little of what McEwen feared might

just be an "airport art" style of commercialisation has occurred. The most dedicated of artists display a

high degree of integrity, never copying and still working entirely by hand, with spontaneity and a

confidence in their skills, unrestricted by externally imposed ideas of what their "art" should be. Now,

over fifty years on from the first tentative steps towards a new sculptural tradition, many Zimbabwean

artists make their living from full-time sculpting and the very best can stand comparison with

contemporary sculptors anywhere else. The sculpture they produce speaks of fundamental human

experiences - experiences such as grief, elation, humour, anxiety and spiritual search - and has always

managed to communicate these in a profoundly simple and direct way that is both rare and extremely

refreshing. The artist 'works' together with his stone and it is believed that 'nothing which exists

naturally is inanimate'- it has a spirit and life of its own. One is always aware of the stone's contribution

in the finished sculpture and it is indeed fortunate that in Zimbabwe a magnificent range of stones are


4/5

available from which to choose: hard black springstone, richly coloured serpentine and soapstones, firm

grey limestone and semi-precious Verdite and Lepidolite.[10][11][12][13]

Jonathan Zilberg has pointed out that there is a parallel market within Zimbabwe for what he calls flow

sculptureswhose subject-matter is the family (ukama in Shona)and which are produced throughout

the country, from suburban Harare to Guruve in the north-eastern and Mutare in the east. These readily

available and cheap forms of sculpture are, he believes, of more interest to local black Zimbabweans

than the semi-abstract figurative sculptures of the type mainly seen in museums and exported to

overseas destinations. The flow sculptures are still capable of demonstrating innovation in art and most

are individually carved, in styles that are characteristic of the individual artists.[14]

Some sculptors in Zimbabwe work in media other than stone. For example, at Zimbabwe Heritage 1988,

Paul Machowani won an Award of Distinction for his metal piece "Ngozi" and in 1992 Joseph Chanotasmetal piece "Thinking of the Drought" won the same award. Bulawayo has been a centre for metal

sculpture, with artists such as David Ndlovu and Adam Madebele. Arthur Azevedo, who works in Harare

and creates welded metal sculptures, won the Presidents Award of Honour at the First Mobil Zimbabwe

Heritage Biennale in 1998.[15] Wood carving has a long history in Zimbabwe and some of its leading

exponents are Zephania Tshuma and Morris Tendai.[3]

International Exhibitions[edit]

1982 Janet Fleischer Gallery, Philadelphia, USA

1984 Henry of Tengenenge, Commonwealth Institute, London

1985 Kustchatze aus Africa, Frankfurt, Germany

1985 Henry of Tengenenge, Feingarten Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1989 Zimbabwe op de Berg, Foundation Beelden op de Berg, Wageningen, The Netherlands

1990 Contemporary Stone Carving from Zimbabwe, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK

1990 Zimbabwe Heritage (National Gallery of Zimbabwe), Auckland, New Zealand

1994 The Magic of Henry, Contemporary Fine Art Gallery Eton, Berkshire, UK

2000 Chapungu: Custom and LegendA Culture in Stone, Kew Gardens, UK

2001 Tengenenge Art, Celia Winter-Irving, World Art Foundation, The Netherlands


5/5

Permanent exhibition, Zimbabwe Sculpture: a Tradition in Stone, Atlanta, USA, at Hartsfield-Jackson

Atlanta International Airport. Works by Agnes Nyanhongo, Gedion Nyanhongo, Norbert Shamuyarira,

Lameck Bonjisi, Edronce Rukodzi, Sylvester Mubayi, Joe Mutasa, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Gladman

Zinyeka, Tapfuma Gutsa, and Amos Supuni.[16]

References and Further Reading[edit]

This page was last modified on 6 July 2014 at 12:44.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may

apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered

trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaDevelopersMobile viewWikimedia

Foundation Powered by MediaWiki

Documents

Sculpture Zimbo