Modern Zimbabwe Art On Show In South Korea

International Wed 05-05-2010

Modern Zimbabwe Art On Show In South Korea
By Jonathan Zilberg

On the occasion of the 50 years since the Year of Africa, Seoul-based Korea Foundation Cultural Center organizes an exhibition of modern Zimbabwean art from the private collections of Czech and Dutch ambassadors.

The exhibiton 'Modern Art of Zimbabwe' was officially opened on May 4, 2010 by the president of Korean Association of African Studies professor Sim Ui-sup, acting president of the Korea Foundation Mr. Kim Sung-yup and Ambassadors of the Czech Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands H. E. Jaroslav Olša, jr. and H. E. Hans Heinsbroek.

The original Czech film on beauties of Zimbabwe and life of its sculptors made by Pavel Černý) was also screened during the official opening.

^{Talawa in Prague by Doreen Sibanda}

The core of the exhibition is made of paintings of all generations of Zimbabwean artists. You can find the works by the first succesful painter of today´s Zimbabwe, Robert Paul, there, as well as works of the extremely succesful generation of artists of the 1990s – Luis Meque, George Churu, Stephen Williams or Ishmael Wilfred – who unfortunately died in their late thirties or early forties.

Not less than seven paintings by Helen Lieros of Gallery Delta show her work which influenced so many younger artists, such as Lovemore Kambudzi, Misheck Masamvu or Admire Kamudzengerere, whose works are also at show in Korean capital Seoul.

Works by other painters are also exhibited - David Chinyama, Charles Kamangwana, Barry Lungu, Doreen Sibanda, Thakor Patel, Freddy Tauro, Cosmos Shiridznomwa, Patrick Makumbe, Anthony Bumhira and Greg Shaw.

^{Potatoe woman by Charles Kamangwana}

Significantly smaller space is devoted to the Zimbabwean ceramists, the works of Frouwke Viewing, Marjorie Wallace and Patrice Delchambre are shown, as well as textiles nad paintings by Babette FitzGerald and iron sculptures and drawings of Arthur Azevedo.

Smaller space is designated for Zimbabwean stone sculpture, which is already well-known in South Korea. At least one catalogue and a book by one of former Korean ambassadors to Zimbabwe on the history of Zimbabwean stone sculpture has been published in Korean, and a few exhibitions took place in South Korea in the past.

Therefore on this exhibition, only a few works – a.o. by Paul Gwichiri, Fanizani Akuda, Ephraim Chaurika and Issa Simms - representing different generations and different artistic backgrounds are at display.

To give a bit more visibility (of a different kind) to Zimbabwean sculpture, a special photographic exhibition' Faces Behind the Art' by Czech photographer Ondrej Homolka is also a part of this exhibition. It shows the portraits of the most famous Zimbabwean sculptors made in their studios or Tengenenge sculpture colony in between 2006 and 2007.

^{Couple by Patrick Makumbe | Image from de40eurogalerie.nl}

This very special exhibition – the first such wide presentation of modern and contemporary art of Zimbabwe – was curated jointly by two ambassadors, who previously served as their countries´ ambassadors to Zimbabwe.

Dutch ambassador Hans Heinsbroek spent four years in Harare (2002-2006) and his Africa experience also covered his stay as deputy head of Dutch embassy in Tanzania in the 1990s.

As a painter himself, he was involved in a cultural life in and around Harare´s Gallery Delta, and collected mainly the works by Zimbabwean painters. His colleague, Czech ambassador Jaroslav Olsa, jr. served in Zimbabwe for more than six years (2000-2006) and he was previously a director of Czech foreign ministry´s African dept.

Olsa was active in promoting Zimbabwean sculpture and sculptors, and he spent significant time among the artists of famous Tengenenge sculpture colony. Upon his return from Harare, he co-organized a couple of exhibitions of Zimbabwean art in the Czech Republic and also produced three Czech-language books on Zimbabwean sculpture and the first Czech book on history of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi (2008), the co-autor being Czech Africanist Otakar Hulec.

On the occasion of this exhibition, a bilingual English-Korean book titled 'Modern Art of Zimbabwe' written by Jaroslav Olsa, jr. was published by Korea Foundation Cultural Center.

With more than 100 pages and many photographs, it is the most detailed description of the history of modern Zimbabwean art – sculpture, as well as painting – as yet published in South Korea, or even in the whole Asia.

More information and photos could be obtained from:
seoul /at/ embassy.mzv.cz

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