Fanizani Akuda

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Fanizani Akuda (born November 11, 1932 in Mteya near Chipata , Zambia ; † February 5, 2011 in Chitungwiza , Zimbabwe ) was a Zimbabwean sculptor .

biography

Fanizani Akuda, from the Chewa people , left his homeland Zambia in 1949 and worked in Zimbabwe as a cotton picker , basket weaver and brick cutter . Then he heard about the Tengenenge artists' colony , where its founder and director Tom Blomefield initially employed him as a seasonal worker in the quarry. "When I my goal of 30 tons of serpentine had almost reached, Tom gave me a box of brand-new tool for sculpting . That's when I started to chisel because Tom really wanted it that way. He encouraged us to work the way we did from the heart. We all had different ways of expressing ourselves in stone. I worked with great artists like Henry Munyaradzi and Bernard Matemera , but we never copied each other. I have been a full-time professional artist since then. It was a good time. I sent my children to school and raised them with the money I made with the sculptures . "

Fanizani was a member of the artist village Tengenenge from 1967 to 1979 , and since then he has lived with his family in a township house in Chitungwiza near Harare . He is an example that the so-called " Shona art" is not only created by members of this largest Zimbabwean ethnic group . Fanizani Akuda is a member of the " Friends Forever " artists' association .

style

Fanizani Akuda belonged to the first generation of modern sculptors in Zimbabwe. He is famous for his smiling faces , whistling men and happy families , his calm animals , all in simple lines and basic shapes. His works are gentle and humorous, constantly smiling, with mysteriously slit eyes - "because I was afraid of getting stone fragments in my eyes while chiseling." (Celia Winter-Irvin: "Tengenenge-Art; Sculpture and paintings"). Always and everywhere round, sometimes laughing broadly, sometimes cocking their mouths smartly, Fanizani's sculptures radiate a great optimism and a calm, almost childlike cheerfulness that casts every viewer under its spell. They are the epitome of African joie de vivre without ever appearing folkloric.

Exhibitions

Fanizani Akuda exhibited in Austria, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, the USA, Cuba, Australia, Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Spain and Germany.

Single examples:

  • 1985 Kresge Art Museum , Michigan, USA
  • 1986 Irving Sculpture Gallery , Sydney
  • 1990 Institute for Foreign Relations , Stuttgart
  • 1990 Musée National des Arts Africaines et Océaniens , Paris
  • 1992 Expo Seville , Seville.

Works in permanent exhibitions:

  • Museum of Ethnology , Frankfurt am Main
  • Art Center Berlin
  • Sculpture path in the Bad Mergentheim spa gardens
  • National Gallery of Zimbabwe , Harare
  • Chapungu Sculpture Park , Harare

In May 2005 the National Gallery of Zimbabwe held a retrospective : "Fanizani - a legend made of stone".

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First Generation Zimbabwean Sculptor Akuda Dies
  2. ^ " Contemporary Master Sculptors of Zimbabwe" , Ruwa 2007. ISBN 978-0-7974-3527-8 .
personal data
SURNAME Akuda, Fanizani
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Zimbabwean sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Mteya near Chipata , Zambia
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 2011
Place of death Chitungwiza , Zimbabwe