adminDr Tony Monda
Art ZoneThe development of the visual arts since Zimbabwe’s attainment of independence in 1980 had been demonstrated in practical terms at the annual Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibitions held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe each year since independence. The Government of Zimbabwe’s idealistic Arts and Cultural Policy implemented by the new Zimbabwean Government’s first Five-Year Development Plan, launched in 1986 under the stewardship of the then Prime Minister Robert Gabriel Mugabe, proved to be a very successful model to identify and propel visual artistic talent selected from a national pool.
It also brought State, diplomatic and corporate attention to the arts by inviting a diverse group of world renowned artists from Africa, Europe and First Nation artists from the US to intercede as a panel of adjudicators.
Works produced for the annual heritage shows by talented artists of all races bore a vivid testimony to the great strides that
were being made in the visual arts of Zimbabwe.
The artworks produced by Zimbabwean artists informed us of how we saw ourselves in the past, about our contemporary epoch and about how artists conceptualised the future of our country and ourselves.
The annual Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibitions were a barometer for artistic innovation and introduced many new artists to the visual arts field every year.
Many of today’s Zimbabwean international art luminaries such as Babette Fitzgerald, Lazarus Takawira, Luis Meque, Tapfuma Gutsa, Berry Bickle, Dominic Benhura, Gillian Rosselli, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Joram Mariga and John Takawira received their first national honours at the National Gallery’s heritage exhibitions .
The exhibition competition further enriched the nation’s cultural heritage and tangible visual culture. The artists made forceful statements concerning our social developments, environmental surroundings and cultural inheritance.
Additionally, such exhibition competitions inspired a competitive edge in the nation’s artists and were a means to protect
and develop Zimbabwe’s artistic heritage; providing the much needed growth of the national permanent collection; especially when the collection is somewhat depleted, outdated, and irrelevant to the times and is desperately in need of new contemporaneous content.
These prestigious national exhibitions also serve as a national platform and arena to make art accessible to a wider and more inclusive audience as opposed to the non-inclusive select audiences that we see attending select curated exhibitions of today.
The exhibitions provided a democratic public marketing opportunity for local corporates to invest and make visible their business’s portfolios together with the arts in the community they belonged.
Particular mention must be made of such corporates as Mukuyu Wineries, PG, Cottco and Mobil Oil who have previously sponsored and provided prize incentives for the Zimbabwe Heritage.
Similarly Econet, Telecel, Delta Beverages, Coca-Cola and Dairibord as well as the many new banks and diamond partners – all of whom are shamefully not taking heed of the potential of the visual arts should follow suit and sponsor the visual arts.
The exhibitions further addressed the development of technical skills, conceptual ability and personal direction. It provided an ideal opportunity for students to acquire and deepen their foundation for effective personal and artistic expression.
It further provided the necessary exposure for artists living in rural community little access to exhibition opportunities in Harare to participate.
All-in-all the exhibitions offered both substance and spirit to the Zimbabwean cultural scene and was moreover a networking
platform for corporates, collectors and artists.
The importance of this art exhibition forum today relates both to Zimbabwean traditional forms of cultural expression and to the larger contemporary urban cultural, social and political context in which this art is produced.
Given the world attention focused on Zimbabwe via the just ended 2013 UNWTO General Assembly, it is important to situate this conversation within the discussions on new developments in art in post-colonial Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, the heritage exhibition will better build an understanding of differing interpretations of Zimbabwean contemporary art, particularly relating to the question of how this important art form relates both to Zimbabwean traditional forms of cultural expression and to the larger Cosmo-African and Occident in a contemporary cultural, social and political context in which this art is being produced.
For the sake of national progress as opposed to individual progress – the curators and organisers of art in Zimbabwe need to give this suggestion that I have posited their serious consideration.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a Doctorate in Business Administration in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He holds a Law and Art Diploma from Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and worked with Washington Area Lawyers Association. He worked as an intern in Psychology of Art and Remedial Art Therapy at the Lafayette School of Art Therapy for the Mentally Handicapped Children, in New Orleans, USA. He is an author, art critic, art consultant and a practising visual artist.
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