|
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. During the pre-colonial era, local inhabitants were already artistically pre-disposed, fashioning various natural materials in the form of fibres, wood, clay and stone for functional, aesthetic and ritual purposes. Numerous Stone artifacts such as the Zimbabwe bird from the Great Zimbabwe state of the late Iron Age bear testament to this. Prior to the opening of in 1957 of the Rhodes National Gallery in Salisbury, its first Director, Frank McEwen, met with Thomas Mukarobgwa, a young native steeped in rural knowledge and spirituality and offered him an opportunity to pursue a career in art. Mukarobgwa became "the perfect mentor to guide the director of the new gallery into the ways and mores of the African people." It was an introduction to local artist Joram Mariga and his early soft stone carvings that prompted McEwen to encourage early soapstone carvers to create works that reflected their culture. The Workshop School established by the gallery soon attracted more artists many of whom had already been exposed to some form of art training from early mission schools and were established art practitioners. These include the likes of John Takawira, and Kingsley Sambo. 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. 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.〔Arnold M I. (1981) "Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture". Louis Bolze Publishing, Bulawayo. ISBN 0797407472〕〔Mor F. (1987) "Shona Sculpture". Jongwe Printing and Publishing Co, Harare. ISBN 0797407812〕〔Winter-Irving C. (1991). "Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe", Roblaw Publishers, Harare, ISBN 0908309147 (Paperback) ISBN 0908309112 (Cloth bound)〕〔Sultan, O. (1994) "Life in Stone: Zimbabwean Sculpture – Birth of a Contemporary Art Form". ISBN 9781779090232〕 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 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sculpture of Zimbabwe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|