Promoters & Biographers of the Zimbabwe Sculpture Movement
Zimbabwe Stone sculpture is not traditional, although much of its subject matter has traditional roots. The workshop school at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe is considered to be the starting point of this surprising art genre (approx 1957), described in the early days of its growth as an "Art Renaissance", and "Art Phenomenon" and a "Miracle". Critics and collectors could not understand how an art form 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 which had been described in terms of the visual art as "artistically barren".
Fifteen years of international sanctions against the country (then Rhodesia) obscured the work from the Western world. (Apart from a number of highly acclaimed exhibitions in major museums such as Musee d'Art Moderne and the Musee Rodin in Paris).
These years were years of hardship for both the artists and the few who supported, promoted and admired and the work. It is a tribute to the dedication and perseverance of artists such as Nicholas Mukomberanwa, John and Bernard Takawira, Joseph Ndandarika and others that carried on sculpting during those difficult times. Yet those years saw the honing of technical skills - the deepening of expressive powers, the use of harder and different stones, with an awareness of their particular qualities leading to the production of many outstanding works.
The sanctions years also saw the development of another "Miracle" - Tengenenge - the sculptural community established in 1966 in the far North of Zimbabwe by a tobacco farmer turned sculptor - "Tom Blomefield". Itinerant labourers, many out of work, drifted to Tengenenge where they were offered a home, food, tools and the opportunity to learn a new skill - stone sculpting. Some stayed for only a week, others made their new found skill "sculpting" their life's work. From Tengenenge came some of the finest Zimbabwean sculptors - Henry of Tengenenge - Sylvester Mubayi - Bernard Matemera - Fanizani Akuda - Makina Kumeya and others.
Since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 The Gallery Shona Sculpture, owned by Roy Guthrie has mounted many major exhibitions in the art capitals of the world, and great acclaim has accrued to the artists and the art form. In sprite of increasing demand for this new exciting genre little commercialising has occurred. The best artists display a high degree of integrity, never copying, and still working entirely by hand, with a spontaneity, and a confidence in their technical skills, that requires no tedious sketching, drawing or measuring.
Amid all the tragedies of Africa there are some good news, coming as it does from a highly spirited and spiritual people. Each sculpture acts as an ambassador for our Zimbabwe, and as a reminder of a cultural form from a distant land, Zimbabwe.
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