Zimbabwean Art History And It's Global Trends

Zimbabwe Mon 25-05-2009

Zimbabwean Art History And It's Global Trends
By: Stephen Garan'anga

From ancient times African Art has been considered primitive and less intelligent by outsiders who misunderstood the African people's way of life and the things they created.

The African people's way of life inspired them to create mostly that was functional and they identified themselves with their work as it enhanced their pride in who they really are.

Their naturally sculptural work brought incorrect perception from the non Africans who found them either barbaric or strange in form as well as their spirituality.

The idea of art is changed with decidedly subjective overtones. Fundamentally it is a western idea developed in the mental climate of western philosophy and applied to the expression of western culture.

In all periods people have measured African art by their own standards, which are naturally not relevant. Many works of art that were once accepted have not stood the test of time, while others are still hold in high esteem.

In Zimbabwe several tens of thousands years ago were San people who were hunters and gatherers, living in caves or under cliffs.

They migrated extensively in family groups through out the Kalahari desert and the surrounding areas living thousands of rock paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes.

These rock paintings express artistic creativity throughout the centuries and are part of the roots of Zimbabwean art.

Another traditional form of art is found in the often finely decorated clay pots of the Bantu who migrated from the north several hundreds of years, establishing a society founded mostly in agriculture.

They had knowledge of working iron, and thus decisive social changes took place over the centuries which, with the discovery of, work on, and trade with gold- first mentioned in the tenth century- led to the prospering of the by now well organized dynasties of the Shona people, culminating in the Empire of Great Zimbabwe.

Artistic remnants of carved stone birds and other figures dating back to the 13th century found at the ancient rectangular granite stone walled Great Zimbabwe.

With time the intermixing of various people formed new cultural traditions that came with their own various art forms.

To penetrate the past is essential to understanding the contemporary art scene, as Zimbabwean artists continually draw their strength and inspiration from the infinite layers of artistic culture imbued within the country over the centuries.

The last century has seen a lot of changes occurring in the Zimbabwean art scene with stone sculpture taking the center stage in the sixties after the late fifties' opening of the National Gallery and its school.

The school concentrated first on painting before stone carving took over, having its first exhibition in 1962 at the National Gallery and then overseas. Some artists started working in welded metal, moving away from the traditional creative ways.

With the attainment of political independence by the country, there has been establishments of numerous educational art institutions, formal and informal visual arts studios, movement of artists from one place to another interacting in various national, regional and international artists' projects.

Artists' workshops, residency programs as well as exhibiting spaces have also played their roll in the changing nature of the country's art.

As the changing nature of art is determined by the changing of what art is made from, today there has been a great movement by young artists from the use of the so-called traditional materials ( sculpting in stone, wood, clay, painting on canvas or board using coloured pastes etc) to the engagement of the natural or man-made objects in mixed media work in respond to what the artists see and feel.

Zimbabwe's development of young artists has turned what happens on the wall as exciting and innovative as what happens on the ground, in the air and in the space around us.

The artists have minds which work very differently to those whose concerns are dedicated by the needs and wants of their materials.

In Zimbabwe today, we look at a gallery wall and we see works which could work as well on the ground, works made of essentially materials, or the huge range of “found objects” purloined from everyday life, the protean, the mundane, suddenly made beautiful through engagement in art.

There has been a new upstart countrywide by artists who are not afraid which upends the traditional ideas of the use of space, time and place, work which engages the most traditional of materials in an essentially post modern, dialogue and discourse.

Whilst it's true that for time immemorial the country's stone sculpture has taken under its wing all things known to man, great painters have imaged that today even painting has moved from what we have known it.

Other mediums too have made their own landmarks that the wave of change has gone right across the board. Every medium is equally superior.

Zimbabwean art is experiencing new wonders that daily one can not wait to see what the great minds of this era are creating.

Posted By: .

skip to top

Your Comments

skip to top

African Artists Portfolios

Geraldine Robarts is a Mixed Media Artist

Click To View All African Artist Portfolios

Kaafiri Kariuki at the Creativity Gallery

Shades of Time: An exhibition by Kaafiri Kariuki at the Creativity Gallery National Museum of Kenya

Features By Regions

Featured Artist Portfolio

Title: Making Ways
Name: Tabitha Wa Thuku
Country: Kenya
Medium: Mixed media on heavy canvas
Size: 149 X 140 cms
Click here to view