Revisionist narratives: locating six Black artist-teachers onto the map of twentieth-century modern art in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Muvhuti, Tichapera Barnabas
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Modernism (Art) Zimbabwe , Art, Modern , Wood-carving , Stone carving , Art, African , Artists as teachers , Art schools Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432444 , vital:72871 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432444
- Description: Job Kekana (1916-1995) was a South African sculptor and teacher who moved to Zimbabwe in 1944, where he founded the Kekana School of Art and Craft in the early 1960s. There were also a few Black Zimbabwean artist-teachers, namely, Sam Songo (1929-1977), Cornelius Manguma (b. 1935), Lazarus Khumalo (1930-2015), Joram Mariga (1927-2000) John Hlatywayo (b. 1928), who were either working with missionaries Canon Edward Paterson (1895-1974) and Father John Groeber (1903-1973) at the Cyrene and Serima workshops respectively and later on at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre, or with Frank McEwen (1907- 1994) at the National Gallery school. This thesis examines the relative invisibility of Kekana and the selected Black artist-teachers in the dominant discourse of the history and development of modern art in Zimbabwe. Employing the biographical approach as a methodology, and modernism as an analytical tool and foregrounding African thinkers like Chika Okeke-Agulu Elizabeth Georgis, Emma Wolukau- Wanambwa and Salah Hassan, this research exposes the possible reasons for their exclusion from the canon, which are rooted in a gatekeeping culture shown by actors in the local art scene, including art historians and scholars, as well as cultural workers in institutions like the National Gallery of Zimbabwe who have not sufficiently questioned and possibly shaken the enshrined legacies of Paterson, Groeber and McEwen. Canons mostly tend to tell a story that privileges and excludes others from the art narrative of a nation. With the arrival of Frank McEwen on the scene in the late 1950s the stone sculpture tradition rose to prominence in such a way that it overshadowed other forms of art produced in the two mission schools or workshops at Serima and Cyrene. In the process, Kekana and his students at the Kekana School of Art and Craft were relegated to the peripheries of the canon as they carved in wood and tended to work in a more representational style. While there is literature acknowledging the role of the missionaries in laying the foundation of modern art in Zimbabwe, local artists-cum-teachers working with them are only recognised as a footnote on the nation’s map of modern art. Recognising that canons are always evolving and shifting, and without discrediting the work of the three mentioned expatriates – and to an extent that of Tom Blomefield of the Tengenenge Workshop – this thesis attempts to expand the canon by arguing for the inclusion of the critiqued overlooked six. Citing the efforts of researchers, scholars and curators in multicultural South Africa to bring the previously marginalised generation of Black modernists into the mainstream, this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to spotlight the narratives of the Black artists and teachers who continue to occupy peripheral space in the history of Zimbabwe. This comparative analysis is done bearing in mind the temptation of falling into the trap of glorifying ‘South African exceptionalism’. In analysing the Black artist-teachers’ contributions as a counter-narrative, this research proposes a more heterogeneous modernism and revisionist art history. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
- Authors: Muvhuti, Tichapera Barnabas
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Modernism (Art) Zimbabwe , Art, Modern , Wood-carving , Stone carving , Art, African , Artists as teachers , Art schools Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432444 , vital:72871 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432444
- Description: Job Kekana (1916-1995) was a South African sculptor and teacher who moved to Zimbabwe in 1944, where he founded the Kekana School of Art and Craft in the early 1960s. There were also a few Black Zimbabwean artist-teachers, namely, Sam Songo (1929-1977), Cornelius Manguma (b. 1935), Lazarus Khumalo (1930-2015), Joram Mariga (1927-2000) John Hlatywayo (b. 1928), who were either working with missionaries Canon Edward Paterson (1895-1974) and Father John Groeber (1903-1973) at the Cyrene and Serima workshops respectively and later on at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre, or with Frank McEwen (1907- 1994) at the National Gallery school. This thesis examines the relative invisibility of Kekana and the selected Black artist-teachers in the dominant discourse of the history and development of modern art in Zimbabwe. Employing the biographical approach as a methodology, and modernism as an analytical tool and foregrounding African thinkers like Chika Okeke-Agulu Elizabeth Georgis, Emma Wolukau- Wanambwa and Salah Hassan, this research exposes the possible reasons for their exclusion from the canon, which are rooted in a gatekeeping culture shown by actors in the local art scene, including art historians and scholars, as well as cultural workers in institutions like the National Gallery of Zimbabwe who have not sufficiently questioned and possibly shaken the enshrined legacies of Paterson, Groeber and McEwen. Canons mostly tend to tell a story that privileges and excludes others from the art narrative of a nation. With the arrival of Frank McEwen on the scene in the late 1950s the stone sculpture tradition rose to prominence in such a way that it overshadowed other forms of art produced in the two mission schools or workshops at Serima and Cyrene. In the process, Kekana and his students at the Kekana School of Art and Craft were relegated to the peripheries of the canon as they carved in wood and tended to work in a more representational style. While there is literature acknowledging the role of the missionaries in laying the foundation of modern art in Zimbabwe, local artists-cum-teachers working with them are only recognised as a footnote on the nation’s map of modern art. Recognising that canons are always evolving and shifting, and without discrediting the work of the three mentioned expatriates – and to an extent that of Tom Blomefield of the Tengenenge Workshop – this thesis attempts to expand the canon by arguing for the inclusion of the critiqued overlooked six. Citing the efforts of researchers, scholars and curators in multicultural South Africa to bring the previously marginalised generation of Black modernists into the mainstream, this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to spotlight the narratives of the Black artists and teachers who continue to occupy peripheral space in the history of Zimbabwe. This comparative analysis is done bearing in mind the temptation of falling into the trap of glorifying ‘South African exceptionalism’. In analysing the Black artist-teachers’ contributions as a counter-narrative, this research proposes a more heterogeneous modernism and revisionist art history. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
Kuntanshi yamikalile (The Future): speculative nonconformity in the works of Zambian visual artists
- Authors: Mulenga, Andrew Mukuka
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Future in art , Africa -- In art , Art, Zambian , Art, African , Artists -- Zambia , Nyandoro, Gareth
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172203 , vital:42175 , 10.21504/10962/172203
- Description: In recent years, select African visual artists practising on the continent as well as in its diaspora have increasingly been attracted to themes that explore, portray or grapple with Africa’s future. Along with this increasing popularity of the ‘future’ or indeed ‘African futuristic’ themes by visual artists, such themes have also attracted academic consideration among various scholars, resulting primarily in topics described as ‘African Futurism’ or Afrofuturism. These are topics that may be used to disrupt what some scholars – across disciplines and in various contexts – have highlighted as the persistent presumptive notions that portray Africa as a hinterland (Hassan 1999; Sefa Dei, Hall and Goldin Rosenberg 2000; Simbao 2007; Soyinka-Airewele and Edozie 2010; Moyo 2013; Keita, L. 2014; Green 2014; Serpell 2016). This study makes an effort to critique certain aspects of ‘African Art History’ with regard to the representation of Africa, and raises the following question: How can an analysis of artistic portrayals of ‘the future’ portrayed in the works of select contemporary Zambian artists be used to critique the positioning of Africa as ‘backward’, an occurrence at the intersection of a dualistic framing of tradition versus modern. Furthermore, how can this be used to break down this dichotomy in order to challenge lingering perceptions of African belatedness? The study analyses ways in which this belatedness is challenged by the juxtaposition of traditional, contemporary and futuristic elements by discussing a series of topics and debates associated to African cultures and technology that may be deemed disconnected from the contemporary lived experiences of Africans based on the continent. The study acknowledges that there is no singular ‘African Art History’ that one can talk of and there have been various shifts in how it has been perceived. I argue that while currently the African art history that is written in the West does not simplistically position Africa as backward as it may have done in the past, there appear to be moments of a hangover of this perception (Lamp 1999:4). What started out as a largely Western scholarly discourse of African art history occurred in about the 1950s and the journal African Arts started in the 1960s. Even before contemporary African art became a big thing in the 1990s for the largely US- and Europe-based discourses there were many discussions in the US about how the ‘old’ art history tended to freeze time and that this was not appropriate (Drewal 1991 et al). In order to advance the discourse on contemporary African visual arts I present critical analyses of the select works of Zambian artists to develop interpretations of the broader uses of the aforementioned themes. The evidence that supports the core argument of this research is embedded in the images discussed throughout this dissertation. The artists featured in the study span several decades including artists who were active from the 1960s to the 1980s, such as Henry Tayali and Akwila Simpasa, as well as artists who have been practising since the 1980s, such as Chishimba Chansa and William Miko and those that are more current and have been producing work from the early 1990s and 2000s, such as Zenzele Chulu, Milumbe Haimbe, Stary Mwaba, Isaac Kalambata and Roy Jethro Phiri.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Mulenga, Andrew Mukuka
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Future in art , Africa -- In art , Art, Zambian , Art, African , Artists -- Zambia , Nyandoro, Gareth
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172203 , vital:42175 , 10.21504/10962/172203
- Description: In recent years, select African visual artists practising on the continent as well as in its diaspora have increasingly been attracted to themes that explore, portray or grapple with Africa’s future. Along with this increasing popularity of the ‘future’ or indeed ‘African futuristic’ themes by visual artists, such themes have also attracted academic consideration among various scholars, resulting primarily in topics described as ‘African Futurism’ or Afrofuturism. These are topics that may be used to disrupt what some scholars – across disciplines and in various contexts – have highlighted as the persistent presumptive notions that portray Africa as a hinterland (Hassan 1999; Sefa Dei, Hall and Goldin Rosenberg 2000; Simbao 2007; Soyinka-Airewele and Edozie 2010; Moyo 2013; Keita, L. 2014; Green 2014; Serpell 2016). This study makes an effort to critique certain aspects of ‘African Art History’ with regard to the representation of Africa, and raises the following question: How can an analysis of artistic portrayals of ‘the future’ portrayed in the works of select contemporary Zambian artists be used to critique the positioning of Africa as ‘backward’, an occurrence at the intersection of a dualistic framing of tradition versus modern. Furthermore, how can this be used to break down this dichotomy in order to challenge lingering perceptions of African belatedness? The study analyses ways in which this belatedness is challenged by the juxtaposition of traditional, contemporary and futuristic elements by discussing a series of topics and debates associated to African cultures and technology that may be deemed disconnected from the contemporary lived experiences of Africans based on the continent. The study acknowledges that there is no singular ‘African Art History’ that one can talk of and there have been various shifts in how it has been perceived. I argue that while currently the African art history that is written in the West does not simplistically position Africa as backward as it may have done in the past, there appear to be moments of a hangover of this perception (Lamp 1999:4). What started out as a largely Western scholarly discourse of African art history occurred in about the 1950s and the journal African Arts started in the 1960s. Even before contemporary African art became a big thing in the 1990s for the largely US- and Europe-based discourses there were many discussions in the US about how the ‘old’ art history tended to freeze time and that this was not appropriate (Drewal 1991 et al). In order to advance the discourse on contemporary African visual arts I present critical analyses of the select works of Zambian artists to develop interpretations of the broader uses of the aforementioned themes. The evidence that supports the core argument of this research is embedded in the images discussed throughout this dissertation. The artists featured in the study span several decades including artists who were active from the 1960s to the 1980s, such as Henry Tayali and Akwila Simpasa, as well as artists who have been practising since the 1980s, such as Chishimba Chansa and William Miko and those that are more current and have been producing work from the early 1990s and 2000s, such as Zenzele Chulu, Milumbe Haimbe, Stary Mwaba, Isaac Kalambata and Roy Jethro Phiri.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
African art and myth
- Authors: Till, C M
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Art, African , Art and mythology , Mythology, African
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2494 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013306
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- Authors: Till, C M
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Art, African , Art and mythology , Mythology, African
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2494 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013306
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
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