adminHis retrospective solo exhibition is a reflection of capsule expressions as diverse and historical as the development of Abstract Art in Zimbabwe.
He is one of the Zimbabwe’s most independent and original artists, who works in a variety of styles and techniques in which, mood and visual apparitions of nature, cities, and people are captured in line, pattern, symbol and gesture.
Famous for these spontaneous colourful compositions, Jogee’s idiosyncratic works transcend the attention of market forces and shun commercialism.
This writer first analysed his works in the early 1990s, after purchasing four of his watercolours (aquarelles), which still look fresh today – 20 years later.
We exchanged snippets of profound insight into society and conversations of the visual power of the sub-conscious.
These were discussed passionately with the artist in his excitable manner.
“Art has renewal powers, son of the soil – it is forever young and keeps you forever young,” he proclaimed.
I was intrigued with his comment on the renewal powers of art.
Art for Jogee is a means of aesthetic and emotional expression; it is what gets him up in the morning, occupies his day and ruminates in his subconscious at night.
His works are memoirs of his incredible journey as an artist, which resonates beyond the spontaneity of his own art making.
In his water colours and ink drawings, he employs a method of producing drawings and paintings without conscious intentions regarding the appearance of the end product.
Suffused with chevrons and indigenous ideograms of identity and slashes of Islamic calligraphy, Rashid’s art is a product of his constitution.
The resulting arbitrary and uncontrolled effects of his painterly gestures have been exploited most notably by the surrealists Paris (1924) and by some American expressionists.
The process is sometimes referred to as ‘identic subconscious art making’.
In the mid 1990s, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe honoured Jogee with “The Presidential Award of Excellence”, for his contribution and outstanding dedication to the development to the Visual Arts of Zimbabwe.
Although the exhibition is a deeply personal historiography, it clearly presents a connection with the land through hidden narratives of displacement and the reality of belonging to Zimbabwe.
On a secondary level, his work questions the basic definitions of his identity, Indo-African, Muslim, Zimbabwean, all of which are condensed in motifs and symbol.
Jogee’s works mark the epitome of aesthetic value in which drawings and paintings become ever “purer” – Essentially, it is the making of marks on a flat surface.
The physicality of his creations, document the artist’s existential struggle to create.
It is befitting to witness his retrospective exhibition accounting for 40 years of artistic output.
This is a milestone exhibition, which deserves to be historically preserved and electronically documented as an important chapter in the history of art in Zimbabwe.
He has held over 47 exhibitions in Zimbabwe, as well as exhibitions in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, England, USA, Denmark and Sweden, to date.
l Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration( DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He is also a practising artist, designer, art critic and corporate image consultant.
Online Reporter