Sculpture of Zimbabwe

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.

Origins

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 Rhodesia’s 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 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, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
• 1971 Sculpture Contemporaine des Shonas d’Afrique, Musée 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

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.

1. 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.
2. Commercial sponsors in Zimbabwe, including the Baringa Corporation, the Nedlaw Investment and Trust Corporation, 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).
3. The Zimbabwean Government, especially through its support for the National Gallery, which now has regional centres in Bulawayo and Mutare.
4. 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.
5. 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 spread that 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 affair – the 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 in the last 30 years... placed beside the dismal stuff so beloved of the international art bureaucracy – as they were in the 1990 Biennale – these 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 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 sculptures – whose 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 Chanota’s metal 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 President’s 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

• 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 Legend – A Culture in Stone, Kew Gardens, UK
• 2001 Tengenenge Art, Celia Winter-Irving, World Art Foundation, The Netherlands
• 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

See also

Art of Zimbabwe

• Category:Zimbabwean sculptors