Fifty years after its emergence, Zimbabwean stone sculpture is now hailed as one of Africa's most original and internationally praised artistic movements.
This informed retrospective reflects upon the origins and development of this movement and discusses some of the challenges it continues to face.
With its full-colour plates divided into six decades, this book showcases those artists who have made Zimbabwean stone sculpture so unique - from the first artists to those of today, and from the very well-known to the sculptors who still work behind the scenes (who still wait for recognition), to all those who create or have created with unfaltering imagination.
The seventy-nine sculptures illustrated in the book were created in the late 1950's through 2004 and are organized by decade. They are grouped approximately in the order the sculptors became active or most productive or innovative. The main author and compiler, Doreen Sibanda, is currently executive director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. She provides an excellent pictorial overview of the evolution of styles, forms, themes and materials prevalent in modern Zimbabwean stone sculpture. She also provides a list of notable and emerging sculptors.
