ZIMBABWE ART
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Art in Zimbabwe lost most of its spiritual power with the conversion of the majority of the population to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Missionaries harmed the local cultures by demanding destruction of anything they regarded as anti-Christian, in particular masks or carvings thought to have votive powers, that is, to be appealing to some god that was not the Christian one. By the Second World War most art objects produced in Zimbabwe were simply that: produced for tourist and local white settler consumption. With the advent of guns, animal skins prepared and decorated with small panels of other hides also began to appear more frequently in the early 20th century, as well as 'karosses' or fur blankets influenced by BaTchwana styles from Botswana to the south.
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As for travelers to the area during the Victorian period, they used art, especially painting, to depict some of what they saw there. This art of the colonial period took landscape as its main theme and many of the European artists were present as part of expeditions that aimed to inform the public in Europe about life in Africa. For example, Thomas Baines joined the Zambezi expedition led by David Livingstone in 1858 and in 1861 he was one of the first to make oil paintings of Victoria Falls. John Guille Millais spent six months of 1893 sketching and hunting in Zimbabwe.
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While sculpture from Zimbabwe is widely acclaimed it is less known that Zimbabwe has a number of good painters. As with sculpture one can trace the beginnings of this art form in Zimbabwe to one enthusiastic pioneer. Canon Paterson, an Anglican priest born in Scotland but raised in Johannesburg, established the Cyrene mission near Bulawayo in the 1940s, and let his pupils make its mural paintings. It was the first time that Africans in Zimbabwe were given training in painting, and Paterson was convinced that only the lack of access had prevented Africans from reaching the same heights as European artists. Paterson later moved to Salisbury (Harare), where he without success tried to establish an art school in the largest township, High field. Although McEwen did try to promote painting at the side of the emphasis laid on sculpture, a major step forward for painting in Zimbabwe was taken only in the 1980s when the BAT studios were opened in the Mbare Township where artists like Charles Kamangwana teach and also paint. An important institution in Zimbabwean arts development is the Delta Gallery in Harare, through which many a painter has received training. Mischeck Masamvu and Lovemore Kambudzi are two of the artist where they both put the pain and agony they see and live through on the canvas, while landscapes of Valentine Magutsa and the Dali-inspired inner landscapes of Victor Mavedzenge give us a notion of the breadth of Zimbabwean painting. While stating that the crisis means a lot of hardships for the painters, art critic and Editor Barbara Murray ventures the view that while life seldom is easy for an artist, living in a time of crisis can heighten sensibilities, and thus be good for the art if hard for the artist.
While sculpture from Zimbabwe is widely acclaimed it is less known that Zimbabwe has a number of good painters. As with sculpture one can trace the beginnings of this art form in Zimbabwe to one enthusiastic pioneer. Canon Paterson, an Anglican priest born in Scotland but raised in Johannesburg, established the Cyrene mission near Bulawayo in the 1940s, and let his pupils make its mural paintings. It was the first time that Africans in Zimbabwe were given training in painting, and Paterson was convinced that only the lack of access had prevented Africans from reaching the same heights as European artists. Paterson later moved to Salisbury (Harare), where he without success tried to establish an art school in the largest township, High field. Although McEwen did try to promote painting at the side of the emphasis laid on sculpture, a major step forward for painting in Zimbabwe was taken only in the 1980s when the BAT studios were opened in the Mbare Township where artists like Charles Kamangwana teach and also paint. An important institution in Zimbabwean arts development is the Delta Gallery in Harare, through which many a painter has received training. Mischeck Masamvu and Lovemore Kambudzi are two of the artist where they both put the pain and agony they see and live through on the canvas, while landscapes of Valentine Magutsa and the Dali-inspired inner landscapes of Victor Mavedzenge give us a notion of the breadth of Zimbabwean painting. While stating that the crisis means a lot of hardships for the painters, art critic and Editor Barbara Murray ventures the view that while life seldom is easy for an artist, living in a time of crisis can heighten sensibilities, and thus be good for the art if hard for the artist.
