Sculpture of Zimbabwe

Shona sculpture is the term for sculptural works of the older and contemporary African art. It includes expressive stone carvings, particularly from serpentinite or verdite that represent humans, animals and mythical creatures.

Term

Nearly three-quarters of the population of present-day Zimbabwe and former Rhodesia are called Shona. In fact, it involves six major races, the Kore Kore, Zezuru, Katanga, Manyika, Ndau and Rozvi, some of which settle in neighboring States today. They all belong to the Bantu language group, but can not be described as a people ethnological. The term " Shona " was in the 19th century by the tribe of the Ndebele, the group 's second-largest population, taken as a kind of influenced contemptuous term for all non- Ndebele peoples and by the colonial powers. The common language, now one of the official languages ​​of Zimbabwe, was introduced as a lingua franca, spoken and written by missionaries only in the 30s. Also artists of other ethnic groups, such as the Chewa, today work as sculptors in Zimbabwe.

Development, Geology

The Shona Sculpture is a revitalized artistic movement that has emerged in the 50s to 60s of the 20th century in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The founder of modern sculpture creation is Joram Maringa from the village of Nyanga. He began with the artistic stone processing in 1958., The Director of the National Gallery in what was then Salisbury, Frank McEwen, promoted these activities. Thus, the sculptor group evolved in this place. Tom Blomefield, a former miner from the Chromerzbergbau and born in Johannesburg, went to Zimbabwe for professional reasons. In Tengenenge he founded in 1966 at its discontinued tobacco farm an artists' colony, found by the global art movement of the associated distribution. The settlement Tengenenge located in the northern part of the country, in the province of Mashonaland Central, about 19 kilometers west of the town of Centenary.

McEwen bought 1967 Vukutu farm (east of Harare ) and started a similar project, which developed competitive. Nevertheless Tengenenge remained the primary center.

The artistic treatment of serpentinite and other rocks is also operated in other regions of the country. In southern Africa, certain types of phyllosilikatischen rocks which are a form of greenschist facies and are associated with Serpentinitmassen, verdite be called. The Verditlagerstätten of Zimbabwe are in the locality O'Brien. Soapstone is also used by the artists and occurs in Nyanga, Mutare, Masvingo and Kwekwe.

Diffusion of the art

For field workers were artists whose fame now extends beyond Africa's borders. The modern Shonaplastiken have become known around the world within a few decades. The first group exhibition was in 1962 within the International Congress of African Culture in Salisbury (now Harare ). Other presentations were followed in 1968 in Lusaka, Kampala and New York, in Paris in 1971 and London in 1972.

Zimbabwean stone sculptures - generalizing also known as Shona sculpture - were exhibited both in renowned museums and galleries in the world, so at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Museum of Ethnology in Frankfurt aM, at the Biennale in Venice or the Expo 2000 in Hannover, as well as specialized galleries, especially in U.S. and Europe markets professional.

Sales exhibitions are preferably organized by galleries in cooperation with the Zimbabwean art and gallery centers in botanical gardens, castle parks and African cultural festivals in Europe.