adminStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
It still remains a puzzle why Zimbabwe’s numerous established artists of different generations are invisible at national level art platforms whilst they are around and creating work. A bottom single digit percentage dare take part in either the organisation of local artistic events or participating in others. This apathy is like a scourge that threatens to wipe away the
recognised art reputation which their predecessors and themselves helped to construct through hard work and jealously safeguarded for decades.
They are letting it slip away right before their eyes. It feels like it will be almost impossible to retain the country’s original art hologram if the current neglect pursues.
I’m elaborating from the view point of an agitated practitioner, a coordinator and adjudicator of various national art projects including the newly opened second edition of the returning Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition themed “Mharidzo”. It is always exciting and encouraging for any artistic oriented person to witness new creative works especially for an adjudicated national premier exhibition with awards.
Indeed it was the scenario for us as a college of six judges sift through the many works of various media brought before us at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe for “Mharidzo”. Certainly the artists vying for the exhibition did research on the theme and created what they could out of the given scenario and materials.
They depicted much on what has become of the nation during these lengthy economic hardships and a bit of this and that of the world events.
There were good works by the majority who were the young and upcoming which is very encouraging. But what struck us the most was the absence of the established and mature artists who used to participate in their numbers for the same annual show before it disappeared for a while due to resource constraints.
The yester year annual show had become a crowd puller attracting international participation in which the cream de la cream showed off the fibre they were made of. There were an array of awards catering for the various media categories and some reserved for the young and upcoming. It was a great achievement for us to have work accepted for the exhibition and being rewarded with an award for the work was wonderful as we used to receive them from President Mugabe. The same cannot be said for the current “Annual Exhibition” in its infancy return without the established practitioners.
It has been over a decade since this shun began. The various national art platforms like this “Annual Exhibition”, “National Arts Merit Awards” (NAMA), “Wild Geese Arts Festival” to highlight a few do reflect the true artistic capability of the nation.
It was not surprising to see veteran artist, Danisile Ncube whom I was with on the same award winning podium back in the 1990s scooped a third prize for his mixed media sculpture titled “I Bondage”. The second prize award winner was upcoming force Anthony Bumhira for his mixed media painting and the ultimate prize went to yet another veteran painter who has been an award winner since the 90s for his four meter long satirical painting title “Lunar Park”.
There were less than ten established or mature artists who entered for the exhibition and had high end work. The show of this magnitude deserves more exemplary work and the old folks can help deliver to represent the country well. There will be a lot of visitors during the exhibition period and the nation would like to have the strongest show possible that truly represents the artistic talent of the nation.
The exhibition needs to attract its own sponsors and buyers to grow. There were not much sculptural work to write home about yet the country’s biggest cultural ambassador was its sculptural art form. Only one stone sculpture by Chikumbirike was exceptional and that was a great disappointment from all the practitioners of the medium who are scattered nationwide.
There is a threat for metal sculpture for its disappearance just like the fate of wood. That is the reason why there are only six sculptural works in the entirety of the vast top to bottom exhibition space of the National Gallery.
Perhaps the National Gallery may need to invite a few established artists to create exemplary for the future editions of the show free from ethos of competition. There was also a huge let down from the female artists as a single work by young Miriro Mwandiyambira was accepted for the show though there was gender balance on the college of adjudicators.
There are aspects of greater future in our art but it is imperative for the established to set the correct tone right now to clean the tainted and disappearing renowned art water mark. A special thanks to the National Gallery for its sterling effort to revitalise the national art pride.
Online Reporter