Sculpture movement · Zimbabwe
Shona sculpture: Zimbabwe's stone carvers
"Shona sculpture" is the name long given to the modern stone sculpture of Zimbabwe, which developed from the late 1950s around the workshop of the National Gallery in Salisbury (now Harare), under its director Frank McEwen, and at the Tengenenge sculpture community founded in 1966. Carving serpentine and other local stones, artists such as Joram Mariga, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Henry Munyaradzi, Sylvester Mubayi and Agnes Nyanhongo made it one of Africa's best-known modern art movements.
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A name and its problems
Shona is the largest language group in Zimbabwe, and many of the sculptors were Shona. But not all: Tengenenge in particular drew carvers from Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola as well as Zimbabwe. Critics have also pointed out that "Shona sculpture" makes a modern movement of the 1950s sound like an ancient ethnic tradition. Many writers and artists now prefer Zimbabwe stone sculpture. Both names are in use, and this article uses both.
Ancient stone: the birds of Great Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe does have an ancient tradition of stone carving. At Great Zimbabwe, the stone city that flourished between roughly the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, carvers made soapstone birds mounted on tall columns. Eight were found at the site, and the Zimbabwe Bird is now the national emblem, on the country's flag and coat of arms. The modern movement is not a direct descendant, but it drew strength from that history.
The National Gallery workshop
The National Gallery of Rhodesia — then the Rhodes National Gallery — opened in Salisbury in 1957 with Frank McEwen, a British art administrator, as its first director. McEwen set up a workshop at the gallery, the Workshop School, where Black artists were given materials, space and encouragement to work from their own imagination rather than from academic models.
Among the first to carve stone was Joram Mariga (1927–2000), an agricultural officer often called the father of the movement. Others who came through the workshop or McEwen's circle include Nicholas Mukomberanwa (1940–2002), Henry Munyaradzi (1931–1998), Sylvester Mubayi (born 1942) and John Takawira (1938–1989).
McEwen promoted the work tirelessly abroad. In 1971 an exhibition at the Musée Rodin in Paris was enthusiastically received, and shows in London and New York followed.
Tengenenge
In 1966 Tom Blomefield, who owned a tobacco farm and chrome mine at Tengenenge, north of Harare, found the business ruined by international sanctions against the Rhodesian government. The sculptor Crispen Chakanyuka pointed out that the farm had an outcrop of hard serpentine. Blomefield turned the farm into a sculpture community, where hundreds of artists lived and carved over the following decades. Bernard Matemera (1946–2002) was among the best known of them.
Stones and style
The favoured stone is serpentine, in colours from green to black; the hardest, finest black variety is known as springstone. Sculptors also use green verdite, multicoloured opal stone, and purple lepidolite. Work is done with hand tools: chisels, files and rasps, then sanding. Finally the stone is heated and waxed, which deepens its colour and brings up a polish, often contrasted with rough, unworked areas.
The style is simplified and rounded: heads, families, mothers and children, animals, and spirits caught in the act of transformation between human and animal forms.
After independence
Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, and the sculpture became a national pride and a significant export. A second generation includes Agnes Nyanhongo (born 1960), one of several women who broke into a field dominated by men, and Dominic Benhura (born 1968), known for lively figures of children and families. Large outdoor exhibitions in Europe and North America, and sculpture parks in Harare, kept the work visible. The market also filled with mass-produced pieces, so quality varies widely.
Related
The movement is one chapter in the long story of African sculpture. Compare it with the blackwood carving of the Makonde to the north-east and the life-size figures of Ousmane Sow. For the region, see Southern African art. See our lists of Zimbabwean sculptors and Zimbabwean artists.
