Shona Sculpture from Zimbabwe

In 1957, Frank McEwen was appointed as the first curator of the new National Gallery in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). He had previously been curator at the Musée Rodin, Paris and had links with various artists of the time, including Picasso (who was himself heavily influenced by African art) and Matisse.

McEwen was impressed with the talent of some of the artists he met in Zimbabwe, and he encouraged them to paint and later to sculpt. Because of his contacts in the international art world, he was able to give the movement that later became known as ‘Shona sculpture’ (after Zimbabwe’s most numerous tribe) its first international exposure. However, it is not fair to say that he created the movement.

McEwen encouraged the artists to look inward, to find their so-called ‘tribal subconsciousness’ and express it through their art. Much of the early work was inspired by Shona mythology.

During the 1960s, Tom Bloemfield, a white farmer from Tengenenge in northern Zimbabwe, was looking to diversify land use on his farm. Tengenenge is located on the Great Dyke, source of good quality serpentine stone. He set up one the first, and now the largest and best-known, sculpture communities – many famous artists have worked there.

N.B. Guruve is the main town near to Tengenenge.

Another hub formed around influential artist Joram Mariga, who lived and worked in the Nyanga area of the eastern Highlands, and is revered as ‘the father of Shona sculpture.’

Though Mariga was feted by McEwen, his creativity had already found means of expression, thereby disproving the theory that the art movement was a colonial construct. The indigenous artistic tradition was already flourishing before international recognition arrived.

Today, the legacy of these pioneering artists continues through new generations of sculptors who honor the traditional techniques while bringing their own contemporary vision to the stone.