Bernard Matemera
Encyclopedia
Bernard Matemera was a Zimbabwe
an sculptor. The sculptural movement of which he was part is usually referred to as "Shona sculpture" (see Shona art
and Art of Zimbabwe
), although some of its recognised members are not ethnically Shona
. His whole professional career was spent at the Tengenenge Sculpture Community, 150 km north of Harare
near Guruve.
Bernard Matemera died in March 2006.
, Mashonaland in the far north of what was, in 1946, Southern Rhodesia
. He spoke Zezuru
, one of the Shona dialects, and had four years of formal primary schooling: like other boys, he herded cattle, made clay pots and carved wood. In 1963 Bernard was working as a contract tractor driver for tobacco farmers in Tengenenge and met Tom Blomefield, whose farm had extensive deposits of serpentine stone suitable for carving. By 1966, Blomefield wanted to diversify the use of his land and welcomed new sculptors onto it to form a community of working artists. This was in part because at that time there were international sanctions against Rhodesia’s white government led by Ian Smith, who had declared Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, and tobacco was no longer able to generate sufficient income. Matemara was one of the first artists to take up sculpting full-time, joining others including Henry Munyaradzi
, Josia Manzi, Fanizani Akuda
, Sylvester Mubayi
and Lemon Moses, who formed part of what is now called the First Generation of Zimbabwean sculptors in hard stones.
Works by Matemera and his colleagues were exhibited in the Rhodes National Gallery
whose founding director, Frank McEwen
, was very influential in bringing them to the attention of the international art community. Matemera first contributed to the Annual Exhibitions in the Gallery in 1967 and 1968: in 1969 McEwen took a group of works, mainly from Tengenenge, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and elsewhere in the US, to critical acclaim.
Matemera’s sculptures are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe
, the Chapungu Sculpture Park
, the Museum fur Völkerkunde, Frankfurt
and many others. In 1987, Bernard was invited to Yugoslavia to make a large sculpture at the Josip Broz Tito
Museum in Titograd
. Celia Winter-Irving
chose Bernard's work "Man turning into hippo" to illustrate the front cover of the paperback version of her classic book on Zimbabwean sculpture.
Many of Bernard's exhibition pieces, such as Great Spirit Woman (Serpentine, 1982), have toured worldwide; for example to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
in 1990, which depicts it on the front cover of the exhibition's catalogue. The catalogue "Chapungu: Culture and Legend – A Culture in Stone" for the exhibition at Kew Gardens in 2000 has pictures of this and four other of Matemera’s sculptures: Chapungu (Serpentine) on p. 2, The Man who Ate his Totem (Springstone, 1998) on p. 42-43, Young Bull (Springstone, 1992) on p. 54-55, Metamorphosis (Springstone, 1995) on p. 94-95 and "Earth Spirit" (Serpentine, 1988) on p. 96-97. Several of these have characteristic rounded body-shapes and only two or three fingers or toes on each hand or foot. As explained by Olivier Sultan, "Matemera finds his inspiration in his dreams. He was haunted by 3-fingered beings, a residual myth or memory, of a tribe that live in the northern part of the country. His massive pieces have a bewitching character, halfway between the comic and the tragic."
Matemera sculpted mainly in grey or black serpentine, finishing his work to a uniform polished surface. His subjects were animals, people or fantasy spirit creatures. None were rendered in a true-to-life way: he preferred to show exaggerated curves of breast, buttock or belly-button to reveal the relationship between humans, animals and the spirit world. As Celia Winter-Irving
commented in her biography of Bernard:
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an sculptor. The sculptural movement of which he was part is usually referred to as "Shona sculpture" (see Shona art
Shona art
Shona art is the name applied to the visual culture of Zimbabwe. The term is used despite the fact that many artists now working there are not ethnically Shona and logically it should include art produced by settlers or visitors to Zimbabwe, especially in the colonial period...
and Art of Zimbabwe
Art of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean art includes decorative esthetics applied to many aspects of life, including art objects as such, utilitarian objects, objects used in religion, warfare, in propaganda, and in many other spheres. Within this broad arena, Zimbabwe has several identifiable categories of art...
), although some of its recognised members are not ethnically Shona
Shona people
Shona is the name collectively given to two groups of people in the east and southwest of Zimbabwe, north eastern Botswana and southern Mozambique.-Shona Regional Classification:...
. His whole professional career was spent at the Tengenenge Sculpture Community, 150 km north of Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
near Guruve.
Bernard Matemera died in March 2006.
Early life and work
Matemera was the son of a village headman, living near the town of GuruveGuruve
-Districts and areas:*Roundhouse*Delaware Mine*Natasha Valley...
, Mashonaland in the far north of what was, in 1946, Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
. He spoke Zezuru
Shona language
Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...
, one of the Shona dialects, and had four years of formal primary schooling: like other boys, he herded cattle, made clay pots and carved wood. In 1963 Bernard was working as a contract tractor driver for tobacco farmers in Tengenenge and met Tom Blomefield, whose farm had extensive deposits of serpentine stone suitable for carving. By 1966, Blomefield wanted to diversify the use of his land and welcomed new sculptors onto it to form a community of working artists. This was in part because at that time there were international sanctions against Rhodesia’s white government led by Ian Smith, who had declared Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, and tobacco was no longer able to generate sufficient income. Matemara was one of the first artists to take up sculpting full-time, joining others including Henry Munyaradzi
Henry Munyaradzi
Henry Munyaradzi was a Zimbabwean sculptor. The sculptural movement of which he was part is usually referred to as "Shona sculpture" , although some of its recognised members are not ethnically Shona. He worked initially at the Tengenenge Sculpture Community, 150 km north of Harare near...
, Josia Manzi, Fanizani Akuda
Fanizani Akuda
Fanizani Akuda, also known as Fanizani Phiri, was a member of the sculptural movement usually called "Shona sculpture" , although he and some others of its recognised members were not ethnically Shona...
, Sylvester Mubayi
Sylvester Mubayi
Sylvester Mubayi is a Zimbabwean sculptor.A native of the Chiota Reserve near Marondera, Mubayi worked as a tobacco grader after leaving school; in 1966 he moved to Harare to look for work at the Chibuku Breweries. He joined the Tengenenge Sculpture Community in 1967 as one of its first members,...
and Lemon Moses, who formed part of what is now called the First Generation of Zimbabwean sculptors in hard stones.
Works by Matemera and his colleagues were exhibited in the Rhodes National Gallery
National Gallery of Zimbabwe
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is a gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe, dedicated to the presentation and conservation of Zimbabwe’s contemporary art and visual heritage...
whose founding director, Frank McEwen
Frank McEwen
Francis Jack "Frank" McEwen, OBE was an English artist, teacher, and museum administrator. He is best remembered today for his efforts to bring attention to the work of Shona artists in Rhodesia, and for helping to found the National Gallery of Zimbabwe...
, was very influential in bringing them to the attention of the international art community. Matemera first contributed to the Annual Exhibitions in the Gallery in 1967 and 1968: in 1969 McEwen took a group of works, mainly from Tengenenge, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and elsewhere in the US, to critical acclaim.
Later life and exhibitions
Matemera had two wives, with whom he had eight children, and he stayed at Tengenenge throughout the war for Zimbabwean Independence at a time when many other artists abandoned their way of life. He became the symbolic leader of the community and from the 1980s gained worldwide recognition, with works included in exhibitions in the US, UK, Germany, The Netherlands and elsewhere.Matemera’s sculptures are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe
National Gallery of Zimbabwe
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is a gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe, dedicated to the presentation and conservation of Zimbabwe’s contemporary art and visual heritage...
, the Chapungu Sculpture Park
Chapungu Sculpture Park
The Chapungu Sculpture Park is a sculpture park in Msasa, Harare, Zimbabwe, which displays the work of Zimbabwean stone sculptors. Its was founded in 1970 by Roy Guthrie, who was instrumental in promoting the work of its sculptors worldwide...
, the Museum fur Völkerkunde, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and many others. In 1987, Bernard was invited to Yugoslavia to make a large sculpture at the Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
Museum in Titograd
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
. Celia Winter-Irving
Celia Winter-Irving
Celia Winter-Irving , was an Australian artist and art critic who wrote extensively about the Art of Zimbabwe, especially Shona sculpture, when she lived in Harare from 1987-2008 .-Early life:...
chose Bernard's work "Man turning into hippo" to illustrate the front cover of the paperback version of her classic book on Zimbabwean sculpture.
Many of Bernard's exhibition pieces, such as Great Spirit Woman (Serpentine, 1982), have toured worldwide; for example to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
in 1990, which depicts it on the front cover of the exhibition's catalogue. The catalogue "Chapungu: Culture and Legend – A Culture in Stone" for the exhibition at Kew Gardens in 2000 has pictures of this and four other of Matemera’s sculptures: Chapungu (Serpentine) on p. 2, The Man who Ate his Totem (Springstone, 1998) on p. 42-43, Young Bull (Springstone, 1992) on p. 54-55, Metamorphosis (Springstone, 1995) on p. 94-95 and "Earth Spirit" (Serpentine, 1988) on p. 96-97. Several of these have characteristic rounded body-shapes and only two or three fingers or toes on each hand or foot. As explained by Olivier Sultan, "Matemera finds his inspiration in his dreams. He was haunted by 3-fingered beings, a residual myth or memory, of a tribe that live in the northern part of the country. His massive pieces have a bewitching character, halfway between the comic and the tragic."
Matemera sculpted mainly in grey or black serpentine, finishing his work to a uniform polished surface. His subjects were animals, people or fantasy spirit creatures. None were rendered in a true-to-life way: he preferred to show exaggerated curves of breast, buttock or belly-button to reveal the relationship between humans, animals and the spirit world. As Celia Winter-Irving
Celia Winter-Irving
Celia Winter-Irving , was an Australian artist and art critic who wrote extensively about the Art of Zimbabwe, especially Shona sculpture, when she lived in Harare from 1987-2008 .-Early life:...
commented in her biography of Bernard:
Matemera deals in pleasures of the flesh. To him sexuality means a healthy appetite, to be nourished with opportunity and spiced with variety. His sculptures speak in a highly suggestive body language. He is the creator of sculpture in the raw — huge naked figures with breasts, buttocks and bulges, charged with sexual energy and all at odds with their massive proportion and bulk.... There is in these sculptures an unspent power and a reserve of energy.
Selected solo or group exhibitions
- 1968 New African Art, MOMA, New York, US
- 1969 Lidchi Art Gallery, South Africa
- 1980 Feingarten Gallery, Los Angeles, US
- 1981 Art from Africa, London
- 1982 Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, US
- 1985 Kresge Art Museum, Michigan, US
- 1988 African metamorphosis, National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
- 1989 Whispering the Gospel of Sculpture, National Gallery of Zimbabwe
- 1989 Zimbabwe op de Berg, Foundation Beelden op de Berg, WageningenWageningen' is a municipality and a historical town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specializes in life sciences. The city has 37,414 inhabitants , of which many thousands are students...
, The Netherlands - 1990 Contemporary, stone carving from Zimbabwe, Millesgarden Museum, Stockholm, Sweden and Yorkshire Sculpture ParkYorkshire Sculpture ParkThe Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
, UK - 1991 Milt Pinsel und Muszel, Germany
- 1992 Stone Sculpture, Zimbabwe, CCrt Galleries, UK
- 1994 Tengenenge Old Tengenenge New, Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands
- 1997 Musee de Jardin, Paris, France
- 1998 Botanic Garden, Hamburg, Germany
- 2000 Chapungu: Custom and Legend – A Culture in Stone, Kew Gardens, UK
Further reading
- Harrie Leyten. "Tengenenge", Drukkerij Bakker/M.C. Escher Foundation, 1994, ISBN 9074281052
- Winter-Irving CCelia Winter-IrvingCelia Winter-Irving , was an Australian artist and art critic who wrote extensively about the Art of Zimbabwe, especially Shona sculpture, when she lived in Harare from 1987-2008 .-Early life:...
. "Tengenene Art Sculpture and Paintings", World Art Foundation, 2001, ISBN 9080623725