BY DR. TONY M MONDA
Bernard Matemera was among the first artists to take up sculpting full-time, joining Ephraim Chaurika, Henry Munyaradzi, Josiah Manzi, Fanizani Akuda, Boira Mteki, Sylvester Mubayi, Edward Chiwawa, and Lemon Moses, who became part of the ‘First Generation’ of Zimbabwean Shona stone sculptors.
His work became so uncompromising, indeed demanding that it often took viewers time to assimilate and understand his strong African imagery and subject matter.
Australian writer, Celia Winter-Irving, wrote about Matemera’s work with an understanding of the community in which it was created: “. . . he beauty of Matemera’s sculptures did not only excite buyers and gallerists from abroad but also the youths of Guruve communal lands . . . The youths would come to his workshop to enjoy his stories which were inextricably attached to his trade.
He would tell them myths and folklore stories as well as stories of man against the struggles with nature and spirits; men who violated the cultural codes and faced the wraths of the spirits, which were the underlying subject to his sculptures”
Bernard Matemera had two wives with whom he had eight children. Throughout Zimbabwe’s War for Liberation (1965-1979), he remained at Tengenenge, at a time when many other artists abandoned their way of life due to the war. Here he was considered a figurehead amongst the artists in the community.
The war years, especially the years following Rhodesia’s UDI saw an unfolding series of economic, military and political pressures placed on the country. The years of civil war were exceptionally hard for the sculptors; unable to work in the rural areas as these became increasingly dangerous. Many artists abandoned their art and returned to more conventional activities in towns. Engaging in the cultural and political life on the wave of African nationalism, many artists encountered brushes with abrasive and restrictive white colonial law; most glaringly with the Censorship Act.
Post-1973, lacking the system of support and encouragement that existed with Frank McEwen, who had been exiled by the Smith regime, some artists struggled in isolation, only to re-emerge as confident talents in the 1980s, Bernard Matemera amongst them.
Bernard Matemera’s work has been exhibited all over the world. He broke onto the International art in 1968 at the “New African Art” exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art – MOMA, New York, under the auspices of 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 work to the Annual Exhibitions held at the Gallery of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1967 and again in 1968. In 1969 McEwen took a group of works by Matemera and his colleagues, mainly from Tengenenge, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and elsewhere in the US, where they were exhibited to critical acclaim.
Since then Matemera exhibited extensively internationally and locally. Notable exhibitions include: 1980 Feingarten Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; 1981 Art from Africa, London; 1982 Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, USA; 1985 The Kresge Art Museum, Michigan, USA; 1988 African metamorphosis, National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe; 1989 Whispering the Gospel of Sculpture, National Gallery of Zimbabwe; 1989 Zimbabwe Sculpture at Foundation Beelden op de Berg Expose, Wageningen, The Netherlands; 1990 Contemporary, stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe, Millesgarden Museum, Stockholm, Sweden -1990 Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England ;1990 The Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands; 1991 Milt Pinsel und Muszel, Germany; 1992 Stone Sculpture Zimbabwe, CCA Galleries, UK; 1994 Tengenenge Old Tengenenge New, Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands; 1996, 1997, 2003 and 2006 group exhibitions Springstone International Art Gallery at 5 Idlehurst Way, off Ridge Road Avondale – under the auspices of Dr. Michelina Andreucci; 1997 Musée de Jardin, Paris, France; 1998 The Botanic Garden, in Hamburg, Germany; 2000 The Kew Gardens, United Kingdom, under the auspices of Chapungu Village Gallery; 2000 Chapungu: The Custom and Legend Exhibition – A Culture in Stone Matemera’s sculptures are in the Permanent Collections of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe; the Chapungu Sculpture Park; the Museum fur Völkerkunde, Frankfurt and others.
They are also in important private collections which include: Pierre Gallery, the Michelina Andreucci historic collection of Zimbabwean Old Master Stone Art; The Frank McEwen collection; Alice and Hans van Belle gallery, Nederasselt, the Netherlands; Lord De La Warr; Sir Ronald Prain; Dr. J.R. Raeber, and Mr David Apter, New York, USA.
In 1986 Matemera won the Gold Medal Award at the 6 th International Triennale for Sculpture held in New Delhi, India. The same year he obtained the Award of Distinction at the Zimbabwe Annual Heritage Exhibition and Matemera’s work appeared on the cover of the first Zimbabwe Annual Heritage Exhibitions.
The following year in 1987 the National Gallery honoured him with an invitation to hold his first solo exhibition. The entire collection was purchased by the Gallery, for their permanent and overseas collections. Subsequently in 1987 and 1988, Matemera obtained the award of Outdoor Sculpture with two Certificates of Excellence.
In 1987, Matemera was invited to Yugoslavia to make a large sculpture at the Josip Broz Tito Museum in Titograd. 2 years later, in 1989, we met again New Zealand where he was invited to take part in an International Sculpture Symposium, which I also attended, during the Commonwealth Games of 1990.
Matemera believed that life’s joys and sorrows were the result of the relationship between the individual and his ancestors’; spirits. His subjects were derived from people and animals that he had seen in the past. In his imagination the essence of these beings was selected and greatly magnified and put together as grotesque human figures or animal forms. They were the elements of his strange and attractive creations that fascinated private collectors, galleries and museums worldwide.
Throughout his life Matemera was committed to the stone – more of an obsession than mere passion; he continued to work even during the faint and diminishing stages of his life. He died working on an unfinished piece entitled “Standing Rhino”.
His three fingered and three toed human beings were peculiar yet almost appeared natural on his sculpture. Matemera’s style was not limited to humans but extended to birds and other mammals which have significance in Shona culture. Some of his definitive works include: ‘Blind Man’ (serpentine 1979); ‘Great Spirit Woman’(serpentine, 1982); ‘Chapungu’(serpentine 1987); ‘Earth Spirit’ (Serpentine, 1988); ‘Young Bull’ (springstone, 1992); ‘Metamorphosis’ (Springstone, 1995); ‘The Man Who Ate His Totem’(Springstone, 1998); and ‘Man Turning Into Hippo’ Animals, spirits, people and the creatures which inhabited his dreams faithfully provided him with subject matter throughout his career. They demanded attention, could not be ignored and remained with the viewer long after they were out of sight.
Highly acclaimed, Bernard Matemera has been described as amongst the best stone sculptors of our times. But for him international recognition, and indeed a genuine appreciation in his native country were hard won; yet his legacy will live on in his formidable sculpture.
Dr. Tony Michel Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is an arts, culture and music critic for Gemnation News. For Comments E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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