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Arts Correspondent
Renowned art critic, visual artist, lecturer and writer, Dr Tony Monda has been invited by the Namibian National Gallery to adjudicate at the Bank Windhoek Triennale to be held in Namibia this month.It is the first time that a Zimbabwean artist has been afforded this platform.
Monda who is also a consultant in the arts, and a well respected international art critic contributed to the Herald’s visual arts as an analyst-writer from 1989 to 1993, when he left to pursue post-graduate studies. He made further contributions from 2010 to 2014 where he contributed his invaluable art reviews which have formed the basis of our national arts curriculum. He was founder president of the Zimbabwean Association of Art Critics (1994), established under the auspices of the African Chapter of L’Association Internationale des Critiques Art (AICA) in Paris, France.
In February 2010, he was awarded the “Black Advancement African-American Renaissance Award” for his contribution to contemporary African art from Oakland University, Berkley San Francisco, in America during the Black History Month celebrations. His writings on the practice of contemporary visual arts in Southern Africa were selected as the best out of a total of 1320 submitted entries.
In 2009 he was given “The Sterling Award of Excellence” for cross-discipline visual art and economics research from the Centre of Research and Innovation in Graduate Education from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
In 1992 Monda was awarded the USIA YOUNG AFRICAN LEADERS INITIATIVE; A Travelling Scholarship to study Art, Art Criticism and Architecture in American society, in the USA and attended some of the most prestigious art schools in the world. His list of academic qualifications and accreditations include: Life Drawing at the New York School of Art, Advanced Art and Education and Theory at the San Francisco Art Institute, History of American Art at Howard University, Washington, DC, Law, Art and Photography at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC, Public Art and Outdoor Installations at Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis, Missouri, the Psychology of Art and Remedial Art Therapy at the Lafayette School of Art Theory in New Orleans, and Stone and Bronze sculpture at the Centre for Native American Art in Santa Fe in Taos, New Mexico.
In New York he studied Contemporary Art History and Curatorship at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), where he rubbed shoulders with great luminaries such as Julian Schnabel and other artists from the famous Mary Boone Gallery.
He further studied the legal aspects of art with the Washington Area Lawyers Association (WALA), and undertook a course on US Arts Policy, Government Art’s Advocacy, Cultural Development and Research at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies in Washington, DC He also took part in Visual Art as Intellectual Property workshops with the Washington Area Lawyers.
As an art critic he worked on attachment for various US publications including an intern-ship with The Village Voice, The Washington Post, and the St Louis Post Dispatch.
He became the first Zimbabwean member of the African Council of African Studies Association at the Smithsonian Museum, ACASA – based in Washington, DC in 1993 under the custodianship of its first administrator Janet Stanley. Dr Tony Michel Monda is a Fellow of contemporary Arts, in the United Kingdom and an Associate Member of the World Academy of Art and Literature.
In the mid to late 1990’s the National Gallery of Zimbabwe on many occasions called on his services as one of the national adjudicators for the Zimbabwean Heritage Exhibitions.
In 1993 he served as the Deputy Head of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and was responsible for securing National Exhibition Funding and the dual corporate sponsorship from Anglo-American and Mobil Oil for the Zimbabwe Heritage Annual Exhibitions.
He was associate editor for Southern African Art Journal at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe from 1994 to 1995, where he inspired many journalists to write about the visual arts of this country.
He contributed articles on the visual arts to Horizon Magazine, the Sunday times, Daily News and Black Arts, UK, during the 1990’s
In 1994 Dr Monda established Springstone International Art Gallery and Cultural Foundation, an independent art institution based in Avondale (off Ridge Road) with Dr Michelina Andreucci, a well known interior design consultant, author and artist.
In 1994 he was also elected as a Founder President of ZAAC Zimbabwe Association of Art Critics’ and represented Zimbabwe at various International Art Symposiums in Europe, Asia and the United States. At the Africa’95 Congress in 1995, held at the Courthauld Institute in London —Monda strongly advocated for independent and indigenous representation of national sections of art critics in third-world countries. He worked alongside well-known art critics such as Olu Oguibe, a Nigerian now based in South Florida University, Chika Okeke of Nigeria, David Koloane and Gavin Jantjes of South Africa and Professor Brandon Taylor of the Winchester School of Art. Together they established independent national sections of art critics in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Monda’s contribution at Africa’95 was published in Saffron Books 1997. He also made history as the ‘youngest and first indigenous African art critic in his national section.’
In 2001 Monda represented Zimbabwe at the 35th Annual Congress of AICA in Zagreb and Dubrovnik in Croatia, at a congress which focused on the possible extensions of the concept of art, the legacy of modernism, international visual art frameworks and sexuality, gender and power.
Monda said: “The function of the World Body of Art Critics is one which simplifies and improves information gathering and international exchanges in the field of visual arts to contribute to better knowledge and closer understanding between different cultures.”
In January 2003, Monda was invited to represent Zimbabwe in South Africa to assist in formulating and drafting a new Visual Arts Constitution for Southern African Art critics. He was also awarded the “Millennium Visual Arts Award” in 2002 for one of his stone sculpture masterpieces entitled “Daughter of Creation”
The artist-critic-writer was the overall visual arts monitor for the 4th edition of the National Arts Merit Award (NAMA), and was on the Nomination Committee for recommendations for honorary degrees for visual artists in the visual arts. He later won the award of Best Arts Writer in Zimbabwe at the NAMA Awards of 2011.
He is the first Zimbabwean to attain international post-graduate degrees in Post-Modern Art Theory and Philosophy and a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA), in Arts and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies.
He is also a noted art and arts estates evaluator, and a corporate art consultant and has his works in prestigious collections, some of which include: Lord Chelmswood UK, Nina Ricci Italy, Austin University of Texas Collection, BMW Corporation New York and Japan, Aga Khan Foundation East Africa, US Embassy Lagos, the University of Sussex in Brighton and the Kleine Collection in Germany, Leo Burnett Advertising, Robert Sykes British Council, German Foreign Office, Daily News- New York, Cicely Tyson Collection, Bomani Gallery, Danny Glover, Denzel Washington, Syracuse University, San Francisco Art Institute and many prestigious collections in Europe and America.
The Namibian Bank Windhoek Biennale 2014 is being adjudicated by Dr Tonny Monda and other renowned Contemporary African Art critics from the 4th to the 8th of August is billed to become one of the biggest Art Biennales in Southern Africa .
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