Shona sculpture - masterpieces from Zimbabwe
Shona sculpture is one of Africa's most important cultural achievements of the 20th century. It combines centuries-old tradition with contemporary expressiveness and has long since gained a firm place in the international art scene. In this article, you will learn more about its history, its themes and its global significance.
Shona sculpture, named after the most populous tribe in Zimbabwe, the Shona, another important tribe being the Ndebele, is probably the most important art form to emerge from Africa in the 20th century. This is all the more remarkable as European colonizers and art critics had long wrongly described African art as traditional, primitive and not very modern.
Today, the stone sculptures from Zimbabwe enjoy a high international reputation as outstanding works of modern African art. They are recognized as significant contributions to the contemporary art movement and can be found in renowned museums and collections worldwide. This authentic African art movement is now known globally and is appreciated by art lovers on all continents.
African art has had a profound influence on European modernism. Artists such as Matisse, Klee and Picasso were inspired by it, as was sculpture. In 1988, experts from the London Sunday Telegraph, when asked who could be considered the most important sculptor in the world after the death of Henry Moore, replied that three artists could possibly be considered: Joseph Ndandarika, Sylvester Mubayi and Nicholas Mukomberanwa, all three from Zimbabwe.
You can read more about the history of individual Shona sculptors here here.
Shona sculptures can be found in the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Ethnological Museum in Frankfurt, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in the London Museum of Contemporary Art and numerous other important museums. Exhibitions in London, Amsterdam, Sydney, at the Venice Biennale and at the World Expo in Seville have finally brought this impressive art form worldwide recognition.
The roots of Shona sculpture possibly date back to the 11th to 13th centuries. In Great Zimbabwe, the most important ruined stone site south of the Sahara, archaeological finds were made in the form of stylized birds, today the national symbol of Zimbabwe. The name "Zimbabwe" originally means "house of stone".
Sculpture experienced a renaissance at the end of the 1950s in what was then Southern Rhodesia (since 1980 Zimbabwe), when the British-South African farmer Tom Blomefield founded the first sculpture center north of the capital Salisbury (now Harare) in Tengenenge. In collaboration with Frank McEwan, who later became director of the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe, he promoted the movement in the long term. In 2007, Blomefield handed over the reins to his successors for reasons of age.
The sculptors work with local stone, mostly different types of hard serpentine stone, in particular the so-called springstone. The latter got its name from one of the first artists, as the stone is so hard that the hammer and chisel spring back when working with it.
Thematically, the sculptures are dedicated to timeless motifs such as love, happiness, family, African spirits and myths as well as the surrounding nature.
