Page 25 - Zimbabwe Stone Sculpure 1st Edition

ThE hISTORY
helped by Thomas Mukarobgwa, who went on to work at the National Gallery as an assistant and sculptor. He explained Shona culture and myths to him and took him out into the rural areas to show him how close Africans were to their traditional value systems. The original artists he gathered at the Gallery Workshop School concentrated mainly on painting and the results really encouraged McEwen.
Then, in the early 1960s, Pat Pearce, a local farmer’s wife from Nyanga, showed McEwen some sculptures made by an agricultural engineer called Joram Mariga. Mariga had been carving curio work such as teapots and busts from soapstone or steatite that he had found locally. McEwen was intrigued and could see the potential and he invited Joram to come to his workshop. His nephews, John, Bernard, Lazarus Takawira and Joseph Ndandarika, who were to become world-renowned sculptors, soon joined Joram. McEwen became more involved and asked them to abandon realism and curios and try to express their traditional culture and background. He was astounded at the sculpture that was produced. He allowed the artists at the workshop to sell their work to make a living and, because they were now professionals, McEwen became very strict about the quality and did not allow repetition. He wanted true artistic expression which significantly forced the artists to improve and the results showed.
The first local exhibitions where Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture was shown were the First and Second International Congresses of African Culture in 1962 and 1963. McEwen’s aim was ‘to show African art in Africa and the influence of African art on the West’.
Due to McEwen’s good standing in the European art scene, he was able to show Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture in America and Europe. Exhibitions he organized were at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1969, at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1971, and in the Rodin Museum in Paris in 1972. These were received with great critical acclaim. The contemporary art form ‘Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture’ had been born and in the following years it was to become a major force in the world of art.
Michael Shepherd, Art Critic for the Sunday Telegraph, London, wrote in 1981: “For this is sculpture of world quality and interest – deeply human, spirited in every sense, and superbly skilled.”
Sadly, in 1973, McEwen left Rhodesia because the country became involved in an internal conflict with Nationalist guerillas fighting to gain
SCULPTOR JORAM MARIGA
“For this is sculpture
of world quality and
interest – deeply human,
spirited in every sense,
and superbly skilled.”
MICHAEL SHEPHERD, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, LONDON, 1981
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