The Art Magazine from Gallery Delta
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Sponsoring art for Zimbabawe The publisher and editor gratefully acknowledge the following who have contributed to the production of this issue of Gallery nnagazine \l APEX CORPORATION OF ZIMBABWE LIMITED Joerg Sorgenicht allery Contents December 2001 - March 2002 2 Artnotes Painting colourful: a tribute to George Churu by Derek Muggins 8 'The Beacons": Zimbabwean painting in the last fifty years by Derek Muggins 14 Human rights, human lives by Al Gowan cover: George Churu Mother and Child 16 mixed media Decimation, deprivation, degradation by Chiendza Musengezi right: Mattheus Nyaungwa David's bag and sling wood, leather and stones 20 Helen Lieros at home by Murray McCartney © Gallery Publications ISSN 1561 - 1574 Publisher ; Derek Muggins Editor : Murray McCartney Designer : Myrtle Mallis Origination : Crystal Graphics Printing : AW. Bardwell & Co. Contents are the copyright of Gallery Publications and may not be reproduced in any manner or form without permission. The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the writers themselves and not necessarily those of Gallery Delta, Gallery Publications, the publisher or the editor. Ailicles and Letters are invited for submission Please address them to The Editor. Subscriptions from Gallery Publications, c/o Gallery Delta 110 Livingstone Avenue P.O. Box UA 373, Union Avenue Harare, Zimbabwe Tel& Fax: (263-4)792135 E-mail; <[email protected]> Artnotes 'What do you think an artist is? An imbecile his best, though, he combines humanitarian who has nothing but eyes if he is a painter or commitment and intellectual rigour with wit Editor's note ears if he is a musician, or a lyre at every and visual artistry to produce compelling level of his heart if he is a poet? Quite the images. For the recent delays in publishing Gallerv. contrary, he is at the same time a political we offer all our subscribers and readers a being, constantly aware of what goes on in Maviyane-Davies is now living and working sincere apology. They have arisen in part the world whether it be harrowing, bitter or in the USA, and his departure from because of personal work pressures, in part sweet, and he cannot help being shaped by Zimbabwe two years ago is a reminder of as a result of several regular contributors it." the migratory trends affecting young people being out of the country. In order to clear the in the visual arts. Other prominent artists backlog, this and the next issue will be The words are from Pablo Picasso, of whom will be leaving the country in the months biannual, rather than quarterly, and we will it was said (by his friend and factotum. ahead, as Galleiy will report, but this should return to schedule with the December 2002 Sabartes), 'He believes that sadness is not blind us to a countervailing characteristic edition. (Subscriptions will not be affected: conducive to meditation and that pain is the of the country's artistic community, namely those who have paid for four numbered foundation of life.' the number of its members who have their issues will receive them.) origins elsewhere in the world. In recent years, the business of politics has become central to the lives of Zimbabwean Zimbabwe has experienced several waves of citizens in a way that is without precedent immigration over the past hundred years. since independence. The conduct of a Helen Lieros. bom in the Midlands town of constitutional referendum and elections; the Gweru. talks in these pages of her father's attendant media coverage, with its arrival from Greece after the First World accusations and counter-accusations; the War; in the next issue of Gallery we will personal and domestic consequences of hear from Paul Wade and Thakor Patel. who economic decline and decaying social came more recently from England and India services; these and other factors have respectively. touched everyone in the country. How - if at all - does such a move affect How have our artists responded? As Chiedza one's work as an artist? Like Picasso, we Musengezi reports in her review of Gallery 'cannot help being shaped' by what goes on Delta's pre-election show, 'The young in our world. But how much of the shaping painters explored the way people feel and do we inherit from our origins, or from our think by presenting revealing images of parents' origins? As Lieros says, 'you can't what it means to live with degradation, take Africa away from me. But you can't decimation and deprivation." No one living also take away my blood, which is Greek." shoulder to shoulder with increasing poverty can ignore the material and emotional How much, in turn, do we acquire from our impact of that poverty; those who portray it education and training? Lieros went to - whether in paintings or plays or stories - school in Gweru and learned her art in may or may not point fingers of blame, but continental Europe, but her memories of the their representations leave dangling latter are punctuated as much by the questions which we are bound to address. existential baggage of language and dress and social difference, as they are by details The paintings considered by Musengezi are of the academic curriculum. depictions of states of affairs; they tend not to reflect on the processes by which the Such reflections on the multicultural flavour reality has been arrived at. Chaz Maviyane- of the visual arts come at a time when Davies, as befits a politically-engaged nationalism is being given a renewed and cultural worker, takes a more analytical and vigorous airing in Zimbabwe. In his heartfelt partisan approach. Maviyane-Davies is a tribute to the late George Churu, Derek designer, a man who u.ses the power of Huggins recalls their jesting conversations graphic images to promote a particular about national identity. The hint of menace position, or message. In advance of the beneath the gloss of good humour derives presidential election he repeated his mission from official attempts to make political of two years ago - to design and circulate a capital out of disenfranchising second- daily 'poster' highlighting the importance of generation Zimbabweans and challenging people using their vote to bring about the their rights to full citizenship. The Diaspora sort of society they would like to live in. may beckon for some, but for many more it Inevitably, the pressure of such a project will is the security of home that needs to be spawn a few failures - images that are negotiated and won. <0 slightly too blunt, or too hastily executed; at George Churu School Children mixed media on paper Painting A tribute to George Churu George Churu died in January this year, at the age of thirty-seven. Derel< IHuggins remembers the man's life and worl<. Friday. S"- February. 2002 and January, helping at the front office because of Hilary's sudden The word came today that George Churu died on the 29"' January at departure to South Africa. This is not to say that he is not often about his mother's home in Gokwe North, where he was buried. Helen was anyway. He has been an exhibitor since we first showed him as a at the National Gallery when his half-brother Christopher came in student of the BAT Workshop in 1989. He developed as an important and passed the news. She sobbed. But I have no tears left to cry. I painter along with his contemporaries Luis Meque and Richard suspected George did not have long to live when I saw him in mid- Witikani, and he has been a participant in all the New and Changing December, bringing two works for the Summer Exhibition, and Directions and Crossroads exhibitions, and many others, through the again, just before Christmas, when he received a substantial sum of nineties to the present. money for recent sales. He was very thankful, and said he was going to visit his mother for the holidays. But he did not look well. His In the late eighties and early nineties, George was more inclined to thinking was confused and his speech was slow and I wondered if he the graphic, and used the silkscreen to good effect. I recall his Ice would return. The story emerges that en route to Gokwe he left his Cream Vendors from those times and noted his potential. After nine-year-old son Munashe at Kadoma with his maternal finishing at the BAT Workshop he went to work as an illustrator with grandmother and travelled on. The boy ran away and followed him David Martin at Zimbabwe Publishing House for about three years, by bus and foot; it is a long way. Clearly, George became too ill to and inevitably his development as a painter, in comparison with Luis return and languished at the Gumunya homestead he had bought for Meque, was slower. He worked full time as a painter when he left his mother. The death certificate refers to 'Natural causes ... swollen ZPH in about 1994, and his development quickened. It has been a body", which could mean anything. pleasure to have George working daily at the gallery. He is punctual, responsible, adept and so very charming and good-natured. He I had a poignant discussion with George three years, to the day, possesses a customary cheerfulness and a frequent smile and laugh. before he died: We have been seeking the opportunity to offer him a one -person show for a couple of years. Last year he was scheduled to show at Extract from diary notes, Friday 29'' January. 1999. the National Gallery but his show there was postponed several times George has been around the Gallery a lot of late, during December and so he is due and ready to show with us in mid-February.