Bernard Matemera

Bernard Matemera ( born January 14, 1946 in Guruve, † 4 March 2002 in Tengenenge ) was a Zimbabwean sculptor.

Biography

Bernard Matemera was a founding member of the artists' village Tengenenge and a close friend of the initiator Tom Blomefield, who had discovered him in 1966. He was regarded as a sort of " father figure " of the community and supported from the sale proceeds of his sculptures young artists. Interrupted by trips to Yugoslavia, England and the Netherlands, he spent his entire working life in Tengenenge and was for many years the artistic director of the Community.

Matemeras breakthrough came comparatively late. His inimitably grotesque sculptures were considered to be difficult to sell and came even with the so instinctive safe director of the National Gallery of Harare, Frank McEwen, rejection. In the eighties Matemera eventually became national and international honors Overwhelmed. He won the 1986 first prize in the prestigious New Delhi Triennale, his work has been exhibited worldwide and went partially into the permanent collections of galleries and museums. So today is one of his masterpieces Man Changing into a Rhino at the entrance of the National Gallery of Harare.

Bernard Matemera was married and had nine children.

Style

Bernard Matemera was a major representative of the first generation of modern sculptors of Zimbabwe. His uncompromising and powerful sculptures, very African and sometimes grotesque in imagery, some seem difficult to access, but are downright irritating emotional and filled with a deep sense of pathos. His main themes were: animals, spirits, people, creatures and the ever-present metamorphosis between them.

Bernard Matemera said, a raw stone is like a banana; the end result is inside the stone, and all he had to do was to remove the outer shell. He saw his works often in dreams. Each person has an animal, a ' mutupo ', which is connected to her and that she must not kill or eat. The famous sculpture ' mutupo ' ( " The man who ate his totem " ) is a person who has eaten such sacred or forbidden food, and now turned into this beast.

Bernard Matemera is named among the best stone sculptors of the present, his works can be found in public and private collections throughout the world.

Selection of international exhibitions

Swell

  • Ben Joosten: Lexicon: Sculptors from Zimbabwe. The first generation, Dodeward, The Netherlands; ISBN 90-806629-1-7, (English)
  • Contemporary Master Sculptors of Zimbabwe. Ruwa Zimbabwe 2007; ISBN 978-0-7974-3527-8 ( English)
  • Oliver Sultan: Life in Stone. Zimbabwean Sculpture. Birth of a Contemporary Art Form, Harare 1999; ISBN 1-77909-023-4 ( English)
  • Anthony and Laura Ponter: Spirits in Stone: The New Face of African Art, Sebastopol / California 1992 (English)
  • Jean Kennedy: New Currents, Ancient Rivers. Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change, Washington DC 1992 ( English)
  • Celia Winter - Irving: Tengenenge - Art, Sculpture and Paintings, (English)
  • Celia Winter - Irving Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe. Context, Content and form, Harare 1991 (English)
  • Eberhard Schnake: Spirits in Stone. Stone sculptures from Zimbabwe, Münster 2003 ( German )
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