admineven elephants began to pronk.
They provided all the nutrients necessary for nurturing the country’s art landscape.
Artists annually had something tangible to live for. They created wonders to be in the most prestigious show there was on land. They would rub shoulders and proudly shake hands with their hero, His Excellency
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, as he would hand over awards rewarded to artists for their exceptional work.
The starry “Mobil Zimbabwe Heritage Biennale” of 1998, mainly sponsored by Mobil Oil, had a total of 44 fine-art awards, which were issued for the single show.
Sadly, the great moments in time took a nosedive when the show permanently disappeared from earth plunging artists into a depression of deprivation.
Not in a too distant past fine art exhibitions with remuneration’s inform of awards for outstanding creativity seem to be trickling back, rejuvenating the artists’ moral that had vanished into oblivion.
It started with Gallery Delta Foundation for Art and the Humanities hosting a handful of diplomatic mission sponsored art exhibitions with awards, a trend that spilled into year 2010. Earlier in 2010 the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe organised the “Live and Direct” art exhibition that had record artists coming down from mountains, tree tops, pole and mud huts across miles of treacherous terrain, down under mines in darkness, lavish suburbs and various other pockets of hibernation.
Gallery Delta Foundation for Art and the Humanities carried on with another art competition and exhibition titled “Facet”, Zimbabwe Now, sponsored by Mr Manfred Ockel, a mayor of Kelsterbach city of Germany.
The exhibition was officiated by Dr Albrecht Conze, the German Ambassador to Zimbabwe.
“Facet”, Zimbabwe Now, the last art competition and exhibition at Gallery Delta Foundation for Art and the Humanities had a considerable number of awards that excited mostly young Harare-based artists who frequently participate in various exhibitions organised by the Gallery.
Art competitions and exhibition awards work for the development of the visual arts of the country and establish among the general populace of visual artists what is happening, what is going on, who is doing what and who is doing nothing at all.
The awards are not desk-bound; they are not the outcome of “meetings” in boardrooms, but of reputable artists with truckloads of experience and have seen off various art trends, cautiously going through mountains of artists’ creativity.
In adjudicated visual art exhibitions, jurists wade through a very large number of entries of artists who realise that fame is not always related to vast fortune and see the small statue as their goal, a measure of respect for their “personal best”. The awards should not be seen as a bountiful gesture, an act of munificence to artists on the part of a gallery.
Nor should they been seen as “donations” to artists for the future of their work. Rather, the awards are a clarion “call” for artists to, despite all, take up their stones and their tools, their brushes and their sponges, their rods and their welders and walk, and in doing so help overcome the problems of their country.
The awards say “Let us respect the artist, not for the car he drives, the walls he builds around his home, the money he stashes, but for the way in which he can produce work which can nurture, uplift and soothe the soul. Without the soul the body cannot survive.”
So the visual arts awards open to each and all and every sundry artist, “call-up” artists and somehow bring to mind the words of homilies and hymns.
An artist who wins an award may not see their life change overnight. At the awards ceremony, they may not be pelted with roses, lavished, feted and fussed over or even given a magnum of French champagne.
But what will happen to them is a “turnaround” in the way they are perceived and, indeed, received within their profession and outside it. In winning, an award, an artist has a personal vote of confidence in their abilities, their skills – the award is, in fact, a challenge to do better.
- Stephen Garan’anga is an international fine art practitioner, independent art projects coordinator, chairperson of AfricanColours Artists, executive member Batapata International Artists’ Workshop, critical visual arts writer amongst other things. Email: [email protected]
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