|
||||||||
Nicholas Mukomberanwa Nicholas Mukomberanwa was born in Buhera district of Zimbabwe of rural parents. He attended St. Benedict´s Mission and later Serima Mission where he studied carving and sculpture under Father Broeber. In 1961 he came to Harare and joined the police force, later making contact with the Workshop School of the National Gallery and its Director, the late Frank McEwen, ex sculptor and curator of the Musee Rodin, Paris, who was appointed curator of the Director and curator of Rhodesian National Gallery. Frank McEwen considered Nicholas to be one of Zimbabwe´s finest sculptors and compared him to many of the masters of the past, he also said he considered Nicholas to be one of the greatest hard stone sculptors of our times.
Mukomberanwa´s great talent lies in his ability to express human emotion with deep accuracy and clarity. At his one man exhibition in London in 1983, he was compared to Epstein, Picasso and Klee and was described as a "Genius" and "A Great African Sculptor". Nicholas lived on his farm near Harare and continued to sculpt with deep commitment until his untimely death. He preferred hard plainly coloured stones and was fiercely proud of his own culture, which he depicts with great conviction in stone. In 1989 Nicholas was the overall winner in the Annual Nedlaw/Baringa exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and was chosen with Tapfuma Gutsa and Henry Munyaradzi to represent Zimbabwe in the New York exhibition "Contemporary African Artists - Changing Tradition". In 1983 the Zimbabwe Government honoured Nicholas and three other sculptors with the issuing of commemorative Commonwealth Day postage stamps. In 1986 Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, bestowed on Nicholas a special award for his contribution to the visual arts in Zimbabwe. Extract from a quotation by Michael Shepherd of London Sunday Times on Nicholas Mukomberanwa. This was at an exhibition held in London. "Some of the subjects and up schemes are, as might be expected, similar to those which occupy the minds of all Shona sculptors, with their sound culture of spirit in material form. But Mukomeranwa is in accord with Michelangelo in looking for a particular form to exist in and emerge from a particular piece of stone. The Zimbabwe stones are magnificent, very hard with a rich appearance, approaching that of semi-precious stones. It is extraordinary to think that of the leading 10 sculptor-carvers in the world perhaps five come from one single African tribe!" Extracts from "Arts Review" London on an exhibition held at the Commonwealth Institute. "Near the beginning of the twentieth century "Primitive" art offered sculptors an alternative tradition. The sculptures here are moving in any language, and they are made from within that other tradition. They are the real thing. Yet they seem at once familiar. We are used to their kind, translated by Epstein, Picasso, Gill (to take sundry examples). Gill can perhaps be compared most directly to Nicholas Mukomberanwa for the devotional nature of his carvings." His works have been sold to museums and prominent collectors throughout the world including the National Galleries of Zimbabwe, Botswana and Malawi; The Museum of Modern Arts, New York; The Museum of Mankind, London; The Field Museum, Chicago; The Volkerkunde Museum, Frankfurt and the Christiensen Fund, Perth, Australia. During a time when it has been commonplace to maintain that no contemporary artistic expression of merit has its origin in Africa, Mukomberanwa´s powerful sculpture has proved the opposite and suggested reservoirs of great expression still to emanate from this deeply spiritual continent. Unfortunately Nicholas passed away on 12 November 2002. Artist's Sculpture (Click to view):
|
||||||||
|
Mission Statement ||
Banking Details ||
Site Map ||
Search Sculptures ||
Submit Your URL ||
Terms & Conditions
Designed for Internet Explorer, Screen Resolution 1024 x 768. |
