Albert Mamvura Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1954 - d. 1997

The late Albert Mamvura (1954 – 1997) created work that was particularly popular with royalty and heads of states in Asia, Western Europe and the African region. Some of his works presented to leaders are often quoted as historical events in the discussion of contemporary sculpture of Zimbabwe. For example, in 1994 on Nelson Mandela’s release from Robben Island, he was presented with a work of art entitled ‘Freedom at Last’ which had been sculpted by the late stone artist. Cameroonian composer and musician Manu Dibango was also presented with a work of art entitled ‘Bird of Freedom’ by Mamvura. The piece was a semi-abstract depiction of a bird looking skywards as if in full song. Dibango remarked: “Mamvura’s work has a liquid rhythm not unlike African music – it is simply magical.” Prince Charles and Diana Spencer of England were also presented by works sculpted by Mamvura as wedding gifts. US African-American actress Cecily Tyson who starred in the movie Roots written by A. Huxley, which later also became a television series, was a keen collector of his works; similarly musician-composer Miles Davies, popular Afro-American actors Denzel Washington and Danny Glover were also enthusiastic patrons of his art. I met Mamvura in 1989 while working as a young chief public relations officer for Zimbabwean Association of Artists, Crafts People and Designers (ZAVACAD) under the auspices of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Tall, handsome and easygoing Mamvura spoke eloquently about his spiritually-based sculpture. Mamvura recounted to me the tales he had been told in his youth and explained how his sculpture served as a repository of those memories. I stood admiring his polished angular sculpture displayed on plinths to a backdrop of Mozambican paintings of African figures painted in ochres, purples and blues by Naguib looming large in (the now defunct )Matombo Gallery – then housed in a newly opened slick glass-fronted edifice in central Harare. With the mid-morning sun reflecting off a building across the street in what is now Leopold Takawira and Kwame Nkrumah avenues in Harare, reflections of Mamvura’s sculptures stood out for their slick modernism. While admiring the work, a tall handsome man with a pleasant broad smile walked in – the tall man was Albert Mamvura. Mamvura’s work which was composed in circles and right angles created for the viewer a sense of mysteriously receding and circulating space. Some of his other works which spiralled in a circle suggested the rhythm of water and the ripple of waves with figurative references to amphibian water spirits – ‘Njuzu’. His work was an abstract synthesis between natural and geometric forms and reminded me of the modernism of International sculptors Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. His complex network of spiralling arabesque lines in stone, with negative space bored at the centre of the stone work was a new modernist language for Zimbabwe sculpture at that time Monumental spiralling stone pieces with titles such as: ‘Whirlwind Spirit’ – Chamupupuri, ‘Protected Mermaid’, ‘Spirit of the Eagle’ and many other subjects that were inspired and depicted Shona legends made up his body of work. I was later to visit his studio in Chitungwiza in 1995 to commission him a body of works for Springstone International Art Gallery which had opened the previous year and who became the major promoter of Mamvura’s work. According to Michelina Andreucci its co-director “Mamvura’s work reminds us that modernism in sculpture has its fundamental conceptualisation, form and roots in African visual practice. “The source of Western abstraction is most definitely from African aesthetics.” Mamvura’s work comprises humanoid, bird-like personages inspired by Shona myth and orature pertaining to the Zimbabwe Bird. His preferred mediums were green opalstone, lime serpentine and springstone. The colour of these stones had particular chromatic associations with the subjects that he explored. Fish-like humanoids were sculpted as representatives of therianthropic aquatic creatures linked with obvious rain and fertility symbolism in Shona ontology, and Eagle-headed humanoids were representative of the Shona dream world – nyikadzimu. Considered as one of the most Shona of Shona artists, Mamvura’s work despite its profundity (in subject matter) had immense world-wide appeal. A first generation Zimbabwe stone sculptor, Albert Nathan Mamvura was born in the Buhera district of Zimbabwe in 1954, growing up in the rural environment. After leaving school, Mamvura qualified as a carpenter and worked for several years as a carpenter with various construction companies in Chitungwiza where he worked and lived all his life. Mamvura was a cousin of Nicholas Mukomberanwa who introduced him to sculpture in 1975, and taught him the basic practical theory in sculpture and use of materials. Since then he rapidly established himself as a significant artist in his own right. In 1977 Mamvura’s works were accepted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe for entrance to its Annual Heritage Exhibition for the first time; he since exhibited annually until the mid-1990s. Albert Nathan Mamvura’s untimely death at the age of 43 robbed Zimbabwe of one of its major artistic talents. However his legacy, in the form a substantial body of work, he left behind will continue to remind us of his talent and will remain a constant source of pleasure and scholarship to his many art collectors and admirers. Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, musician, art critic, practicing artist and Corporate Image Consultant. He is also a specialist Art Consultant, Post-Colonial Scholar, Zimbabwean Socio-Economic analyst and researcher.