Art Communities
´´The Great Dyke´´
The Great Dyke, a mountain ridge of stone running from near Masvgingo to near the Zambezi River. Escarpment of the dyke is 1300kms long and shaped like a walking stick. At the top of the stick in the direction Zambia is the crook this is where the sculpture community Tenenenge will be found. During the war of independence it was agreed by the local chiefs that no blood would be spilt in this area. The kept their word. Majority of the stone used for carving comes from the ´´Great Dyke´´. The hardest and reputed tobe best quality springstone, serpentine are taken out in boulder form from the dyke.The National Gallery of Zimbabwe
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe under its various Directorships has remained a showcase for the art of the nation and today is a National Gallery much in tune with current developments in the international art arena such as Biennales as it is with the traditions of art in Zimbabwe in particular the stone sculpture. The Gallery keeps abreast with current developments and historic precedents in the visual arts through a lively annual exhibitions programme and a constantly updated and reviewed Permanent Collection of works of art, acquired partly through acquisitions and partly through donations The Permanent Collection of the Gallery includes some major European donations the bequest of the the late Sir Stephen Courtauld, major benefactor to the Library. The Permanent Collection is often on display innovative curaotrhsip giving new slants to the works, and new understandings of the periods they come form.An open plan building designed by late architect Peter Oldfield, the Gallery can house five exhibitions at once.Its Zimbabwe Heritage Annual Exhibitions were a series of open exhibitions judged by a professional jury,one opened by Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II one by the President of Zimbabwe the Hon Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The Heritage Exhibitions gave fame and cudos to their Award winners and were often a platform for the overseas exposure of the first and second generation of sculptors working in stone.
The Gallery has what has been authentically termed the most comprehensive art library in Sub Saharan Africa, The Library is one with the sense of reverence for its mission and the books it contains, much like the Bodlein Library at Oxford, Students from secondary and tertiary institutions studying art and culture read in solemn silence in the library often jammed packed into chairs.
The Gallery acknowledges progress in art and progress in the work of individual artists. During the C21 the Gallery in exhibition has kept apace with international methods of curatorship, In 2004 there was the Harare Biennale an rigidly curated exhibition of twenty five works around the theme of ´´Motion´´ of a world and peoples in constant movement,a situation whch has impact on identity and sense of belonging. Dominant in this exhibition was sculptor Dominic Benhura ´´The Swimmers´´ an installation in which Benhura used stone sculpture, shadows of sculptures seen in water and light. In 2007 January there was a solo exhibition of Dominic´s work ´´Creatures of the Earth´´ bulls, elephants, snakes and a butterfly with wings with inlaid stones of many colours.
International directions in art are shown at the Gallery in exhibitions hosted by Diplomatic Missions based in Zimbabwe, some Asian Embassies The Republic of Korea and Indonesia, some Eastern European Embassies the Embassy of the Czech Republic. In 2007 the National Gallery celebrates fifty years of existence with a series of exhibitions which show the historical value of Zimbabwean art and the international approach of much of its contemporary directions.
The National Gallery has an active Education Department which sees that exhibitions are animated so as to educate school children as to the meaning of the works shown and the intention of the artist. There are ´´walkaround´´ by artists themselves, there are schools tours and school children are encouraged to draw works of art in the Gallery.
A Public Lecture Programme was organized during 2006, various scholars in the visual arts giving lectures, some from overseas and in 2005 there was a Symposium The Stone Sculpture of Zimbabwe A Growth Industry with various presenters and discussants speaking of the economic benefits and consequences of the stone scultpture to Zimbabwe the arts industry and the sculptors themselves. Each Director of the Gallery has made their own mark on the identity of the institution, that is inevitable, but there is also the Gallery staff many who have been there for many years who know very well the procedures and workings of the institution.
The Gallery is an inviting building in the heart of the city a modern building with open doors. There is the Gallery Market with an excellent restaurant, there are openings which to Zimbabweans and the international community are social occasions as much as art events, The Gallery is a respected platform for exploring the nature of the visual arts at large at National Level.
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Chapungu Sculpture Park
Chapungu Sculpture Park is an outdoor scultpture park in a tract of bush in the middle of a light density industrial area Msasa outside of Harare. Chapungu Sculpture Park started out as a means of displaying some of the best of the stone sculpture in an outdoor setting enhancing the beauty and impact of the work, The Director Roy Guthrie South African had assisted making the name of some of the best known middle generation of sculptors working in stone in Zimbabwe today, some such as Agnes Nyanhongo and Joe Mutasa whose monumental culturally provocative works in stone demanded an outdoor setting suited to their size and scale.Chapungu Park has also offered sculptors a place to work, some who would be working in backyards, some in remote rural settings far from market and opprtuntiies for sales. Roy Guthrie when active in Zimbabwe was able to arrange exhibitions in very prestigious venues overseas, royal castles and a series of exhibitions in Botantical Gardens the world over already visited by thousands of people, including Chicago Botanical Gardens and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Capetown., It was through Riy Guthrie that many sculptors had the opporunitt to see the world totravel beyond their borders and the boundaries of their cultures to give workshops to be present at exhibitions, to make speeches at same, Ry Guhtrie has now moved to the USA where he has a gallery in Denver largelu representing sculptors from his own stable, Chapungu Park today remains a palce for sculptors to work, to appreciate a bush setting. But these scultprso like many others are challenged by the cost of stones and transport to the mine and fuel.
But the Park remains a setting in Harare for people to see stone sculpture as it should be seen out of doors, from the vantage point of distance, in an environment where trees and grasses and rocks enhance the natural beaiuty of the stones from which the sculpture is made. Chapungu Park is one of a number of informal intitivates which have been encouraged in Zimbabwe to foster the development of the stone sculpture. The Park contains a well lit indoor gallery where some major works are displayed. Over the years the Park has become a feature of the Zimbabwe art world, somewhere people who look for the ston sculpture are told to visit, somewhere wehre students can talk with sculptors in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. The work of Roy Guthrie in Zimbabwe must be remembered as work which lent name and fame to some who became the greatest sculptors in Zimbabwe has seen and for this the nation must be grareful.
Chapungu Park has established over the years a Permanent Collection of the stone sculpture the strength of which lies in early work and also monumental works seen to best advantage in the vista provided by the Park and to good advantage in the Botanical Gardens in whch the Park exhibits overseas. The Park today has its place in the presentation of the stone sculpture but it is best recognized for its historic role in giving strength to the names of some of the best of the latter first generation and second generation of sculptors, and for its organizing of one person exhibitions for invidiaul sculptors of the calibre of Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Henry Munyaradzi at prestigious venues in the UK.
Tengenenge Sculpture Community
Tom Blomefield established the Tengenenge Sculpture Community in the late 1960s to provide alternative employment for his workers. The Tengenenge Sculpture Community has an important place in the history of stone sculpture from Zimbabwe. It was the home of many successful first generation stone artists.Tengenenge today has a more concise coherent and considered display of sculpture with a historic bent separating the sculptors into various generations. Today?s sculptors who work at Tengenenge find that the big idea benefits from the monumental presence of the sculptures
Zimbabwe´s people have always had a natural ability to work with their hands and create objects vital to their culture. This has lead to these beautiful stone sculpture being a match for any contemporary art in international galleries.
The appeal of Tengenenge originates from the multi-cultural community that expresses itself in original and characteristically different stone carvings. The opportunity to interact with the artists makes for an unforgettable visit.
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