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The National Gallery of Zimbabwe has moved to another level with the Portrait Exhibition by the top portrait artists of Zimbabwe, which is set to run from April 23 to June 29 2015 and is co-curated by the Executive Director and the chief curator. The show will coincide with the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
Fifty artists have been commissioned to create portraits of leading Zimbabwean personalities.
Some of them are late, while others are still active in the community.
The sample of personalities was aired through radio and the internet and the public response led to a list that includes movers and shakers in over 25 different categories.
These include philanthropists, academics, musicians, beauty queens, politicians, sport personalities, scientists, religious figures, gender activists, actors, traditional leaders and many more.
The artists include some of the top portrait painters in Zimbabwe among them Thomas Mwasangwale, Julius Mashambadope, Hermit Muyambo, Option Nyahunzvi, Farai Sithole and Tonely Ngwenya.
The show promises to be very exciting.
The artists have been challenged to find either photos or communicate with the subject to secure a sitting.
The idea for the show is for a National Portrait Gallery for Zimbabwe as a longer term vision to be realised.
Each portrait will be augmented for the subject and this will honour Zimbabweans that have made a lasting contribution in all spheres of human endeavour.
This show will be a foundation stone of a periodical celebration of influential Zimbabweans as time goes by.
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe chief curator and deputy director Raphael Chikukwa said: “This show is a publication which makes us see the need to recognise our own achievements and our own people in Zimbabwe.
“It is a celebration of our history and achievers, personalities and heroes who have made us who we are today. The journey of personalities is a continuous one and needs to be recorded and it can only be recorded accordingly by an exhibition of this nature that will bring to the people an idea of people seeing themselves.”
He added that this exhibition is beneficial to the rest of the country.
“Normally portraits are done to put in houses and offices of individuals, but these will be put in an ‘art chapel’ at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe where they are accessible to everyone.”
These portraits can also be an advantage to students and children, who will be able to see the vision of the people they would have learned about or heard about but do not know them.
“We will strive to renew this exhibition continuously over the coming years and our projection with this show is to see it become a stand-alone gallery that would seek to empower the portraiture genre and expose portrait artists while showcasing all of our people that have made sterling contributions across all sectors,” Chikukwa explained.
The collection will be able to travel within different parts of the world as well as local 15 community halls, for example Stodart Hall in Mbare, Hatfield Hall, Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare, Nyarutsetso Hall in Highfield and Rutendo Hall in Mufakose among others.
Online Reporter