The Art and Artist

The particular connection between the artists and the stone is a major characteristic of Zimbabwean sculpture. First the artist selects from among the blocks of raw material for a piece that speaks to him, one with which he feels an affinity. The stones are transported with difficulty to the sculptor's work area which is always outside in the open, a sort of personal quarry.

Most artists work on several pieces simultaneously moving from one rough stone to the other establishing a true rapport with the emerging forms. Unlike most western sculptors, Zimbabwean artists directly approach the stone by hand without sketching an outline on paper first although they will occasionally draw directly onto the stone before carving it. Their work is therefore a slow refining process, a determined advance towards the heart of the stone in search of the perfect form contained within it. Underlying this process is the conviction that stone is a noble, compact and demanding material and through its carving, fundamental values of the Shona people are expressed.

All Shona sculptors have a double obsession. On the one hand as their culture seems increasingly threatened by the westernization of society they want to preserve their oral cultural heritage by shaping it into eternal forms. On the other they want to surround themselves with these stone creations from which often they only part with regret and sometimes with real anguish.