Henry Munyaradzi

Henry Munyaradzi (1994)

Henry Munyaradzi (* 1931 in Guruve , North Zimbabwe ; † July 1998 ) is a representative of the first generation of modern sculptors in Zimbabwe.

biography

As the son of a ghost seer who left the family early, Munyaradzi lived as usual for rural Zimbabwe - his childhood and youth without schooling and worked as a shepherd and hunter with a bow and arrow. Among other things, he worked as a village blacksmith, carpenter and tobacco sorter and in many other professions, until he happened to come to the Tengenenge artists' colony founded by tobacco grower Tom Blomefeld in 1967. There he saw sculptors at work for the first time at the age of thirty-six. The idea of ​​the artist colony changed his life. He developed his sculptural mastery without knowledge of the stylistic work of Bernard Matemera and Josiah Manzi autodidactically and soon became one of the leading sculptors in Tengenge. At this time there was a revival of the stone carving tradition of Zimbabwe, also known as Shona art. In 1968 Munyaradzi's works were shown in the National Gallery in Harare; Exhibitions at the Musée Rodin in Paris and the New York Museum of Modern Art established its international reputation in the early 1970s. In 1975 he left Tengenenge in order to be able to further develop his individual style without being influenced. After a solo exhibition in London in 1984, he was able to buy his own farm in Ruwa, southeast of Harare. From 1985 until his death in 1998 he lived and worked there in close contact with nature. His peculiar and very simple style is so concise that he cannot be confused with any other Shona sculptor.

style

The essence of Munyaradzi's work lies in the respect for the stone itself, its shape, color and structure , from which he drew his inspiration . He is characterized by overlapping flat rectangles, circular, conical , spherical , cylindrical shapes, which in their clear cut and purity harmonize perfectly with one another and yet have a natural corporeality. Henry Munyaradzi was mostly inspired by the natural shape of the stone to work spontaneously without preliminary drawings or measurements . He was a very devout person; Friendship, family, and the stories of the Bible were a source of motive for his works.

Exhibitions

Since the first exhibition in 1968 at the National Gallery of Rhodesia in what was then Salisbury , Henry Munyaradzi has been present locally and internationally with solo and group exhibitions. He was represented with eight solo exhibitions in London , Los Angeles , Berlin , Heidelberg and Harare. His works can be found in the National Gallery of Zimbabwe , in the Chapungu Sculpture Park and alongside those by Henry Moore , Constantin Brâncuși and Rodin in the Feingarten Gallery in Los Angeles, in the Art Center Berlin as well as in museums and private collections around the world.

swell

• Ben Joosten: Lexicon: Sculptors from Zimbabwe. The first generation , Dodeward, Netherlands; ISBN 90-806629-1-7 (English)
• Contemporary Master Sculptors of Zimbabwe . Friends Forever, Ruwa, Zimbabwe 2007; ISBN 978-0-7974-3527-8 (English)
• Oliver Sultan: Life in Stone. Zimbabwean Sculpture. Birth of a Contemporary Art Form , Harare 1999; ISBN 1-77909-023-4 (English)
• Celia Winter-Irving: Tengenenge-Art, Sculpture and Paintings , (English)
• Celia Winter-Irving: Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe. Context, Content and Form , Harare 1991. (English)
• Prominent Sculptors: Henry Munyaradzi , Catalog, Harare 1987. (English)

Web links

Artist village Tengenenge (English)

Biography and illustrations of works (English)

Illustrations of works and short biography (English)