BY DR TONY MICHEL MONDA
With unyielding precision, Sango’s hard-edged geometric sculpture awakened new tactile senses in the perception and reception of Zimbabwean art. Form became the message, the consciousness realization and orature that replaced the older generation’s indigenous memory and narrative.
Sango saw his work as an individual expression as opposed to many other artists who stressed the collective ethnic Shona origins of their sculpture to gain credence.
His work was in direct opposition of what was expected of African artists by European colonial audiences.
Western art institutions encouraged the sculptors, in the early days, to adhere to a specific Shona genre – repeating the mythology and orature which corresponded to their common perception of African art. Although this view guaranteed sales, it made artistic innovation particularly difficult for the sculptors who were progressive and wanted to develop a unique language of their own.
As a result, Sango deliberately separated himself from Western influence, to assert his own brand of Zimbabwean modernist sculpture.
Based in Mdindo in Guruve, Sango explored the basic subject of the human figure using simplified forms transmuted to geometric cubes and triangular planes with strong formal qualities creating an abstract balance and harmony.
Technically, Sango had an awareness of the tensions, stresses and harmonies that shapes communicate.
Stylistically and thematically Sango introduced new dynamics in contemporary Zimbabwean visual art. His bold geometric works became the cornerstone for modern day abstraction in Zimbabwe’s Shona stone art. The way he tackled form in his sculpture imbued it with common universal visual qualities, to the extent that words were was not required to understand his work.
Interior Design specialist and art collector, Michelina Andreucci of Springstone Art Gallery in Avondale, Harare, who is very familiar with the Guruve community of sculptors and knew Sango since 1981, describes his work “As the braille of stone sculpture. So sensitive he was to form and design that if a blind man touched and felt his sculpture he would understand what the artist was communicating.”
Employing formal design elements combined with a powerful spirituality and animated vigour, the artist expressed a liveliness and spontaneity not often found in African sculpture. Rhomboids and pure geometric sculptural parallelograms were facetted in stone and imbued with psycho-emotional tactile senses. Sango’s rhombohedron facets carved on multiple planes gave Zimbabwean art a new modernist façade where content and sensation articulated the theme of his works of art.
He worked in the hard springstone found in the Mutoroshanga area of Zimbabwe, known for its density and durability.
However, his signatory work was recognised in the very colourful Guruve serpentine stone which he excavated near his home area in Mdindo.
The different degrees of hardness contained in Guruve fruit serpentine stone were particularly suitable to Sango’s forms of abstraction; displaying his mastery of the medium.
Exploring pure form, geometry and powerful sculptural mass, Sango portrayed a wide range of subjects; sometimes figurative, exemplary in ‘Woman Kneeling’, or symbolic such as ‘Njuzu’ (Mermaid) and ‘Lion Spirit’, and often exploring human emotions and universal empathy in works such as ‘A Prayer for Us All’.
In a review of the exhibition “Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture: The Second Generation”, held in England in 1994, Sango’s work was highlighted by the art critic Lionel Philips thus: “. . . Sango, who is the only Zimbabwean whose work is mainly abstract, appears as a follower of 1930’s cubism but he has had, in fact, no exposure to Western art”
A trail-blazing feisty artist, Sango ran a studio with more than 11 assistants and neophytes who assisted him tirelessly on his monumental sculptures while learning the skills of sculpture. Although most Occidental abstract sculpture is visually and linguistically challenging for the ‘untrained eye’ (novice viewer), Sango was able to make his neo-African-abstraction accessible and enjoyable for the masses. He became very wealthy in the 1990s; with exhibitions and orders proffered to him from all over the world.
Besides exhibiting in the Annual National Exhibitions held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1990; Sango’s exhibitions include:
Zimbabwe House, London (1981);
Botswana National Gallery, Gaborone (1983);
Irving Sculpture Gallery, Sydney (1985);
International Contemporary Arts Fair, Los Angeles (1986);
Award of Merit, Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe (1987);
Chicago International Art Exposition, Chicago (1987 & 1988);
International Gallery Invitational, Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York City (1988);
Solomon Gallery, Dublin (1989);
Foundation Beelden Op de Berg, Holland (1989);
Australian Art Exposition, Sydney (1989);
Musee des Arts Africains et Oceaniiens, Paris (1990);
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, U.K. (1990-1991);
Millesgarden Museum, Stockholm (1990);
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio (1991);
"A New Generation", Alliance Francais, Harare (1991);
DePaul University Art Gallery, Chicago (1993);
A one man show at Alliance Francais, Harare, Zimbabwe (1994);
“Old Masters, New Signatures”, Springstone Art Gallery, Avondale, April 1994;
“Afrikan Abstraction”, Springstone Art Gallery, Avondale, August 1994
G-15 Summit, Malaysia, c/o Springstone Art Gallery, Avondale, 1997
“Afrikan Eclipse” Springstone Art Gallery, Avondale, 2000
Brighton Sango (1958-1995) Retrospective “Beyond Reality”, Springstone Art Gallery,
Avondale, 2005 Almost three decades after his death, in August 1995, Brighton Sango remains one of the most innovative Zimbabwean artists whose work continues to speak with great eloquence and authority to local and international audiences and epitomize historical, social and monetary value today as well as herald new possibilities for the future of Zimbabwean stone sculpture.
Despite his prolific output however, Sango’s craftsmanship was never perfunctory; his artwork was perfected to precision, highly polished and compositionally well resolved. The human element in his work was often signified by a circular head and limbs were deliberately omitted, unless deemed necessary to describe the sensation he was articulating.
Today, his rare works are still highly valued by art collectors. With the world focused on contemporary African art in the new millennium, Brighton ‘Zoto’ Sango’s works are still sought after for public and private collections in all the countries where Zimbabwean art has been exposed.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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