Page 96 - Zimbabwe Stone Sculpure 1st Edition

ZIMBABWE STONE SCULPTURE
“His sculptures are created with beautiful, clean lines and his subject matter is usually gently spiritual, depicting the African man or woman and animals.”
RICHARD MTEKI
Richard Mtkei is a living, breathing part of human history as he is one of the few Zimbabwean artists alive today who attended Frank McEwen’s early Workshop School at the National Gallery in the late 1960s.
Richard was born in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, in 1947. His father was a mechanic and his late elder brother, Boira, was one of the founder members of McEwen’s Workshop School. It was his brother’s influence that took him into sculpting and he eventually joined the Workshop School. He left in 1973, after McEwen had departed, and started to work on his own.
Richard is an exceptional sculptor. In 1986, the Zimbabwean Govern- ment asked him to make a sculpture of the Zimbabwean Bird, based on those found at Great Zimbabwe, for the new National Sports Stadium in Harare. His sculptures have also been presented to the Nigerian Head of State, Shehu Shagari, when he made an official visit to Zimbabwe in 1982 and to Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 when he opened the Non-Aligned Movement in Harare. His work has been shown and sold in exhibitions and top galleries around the world including The Mall Galleries in London.
He claims that sculpting has bought him a sense of peace and makes him happy by keeping him busy. He believes you should love and respect your work and not do it just for money. He says “stones do not get rotten” and therefore he would rather suffer than give his sculptures away (for low prices). He is happy to invest whatever time it takes to get inspiration and often he dreams about what he wants to do. His ideas come from his spiritual being and he likes trying new things. Richard’s work is very popular because he has a natural easy style, creating gentle forms that are peaceful and calming. His sculptures are created with beautiful, clean lines and his subject matter is usually gently spiritual, depicting the African man or woman and animals.
Richard has the honour of being the first artist who started with Stone Dynamics Gallery, so our relationship has been long and fruitful. He is an intelligent man who is fair-minded and freely shares information.
His children have also done well in the art world. His son Robin is an artist, Bryn was a musician and sculptor, Richard Jr also sculpts, his daughter Nancy is a photographer and Tom a painter.
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