Lot 20: BERNARD MATEMERA (ZIMBABWEAN, 1946-2006) ‘Womanizer’ and ‘B

BERNARD MATEMERA (ZIMBABWEAN, 1946-2006) ‘Womanizer’ and ‘Blind Man’ one signed ‘B MATEMERA’ (underside of base) carved stone 95 x 40 x 36cm (37 3/8 x 15 3/4 x 14 3/16in) including stone base; 71 x 45 x 17cm (27 15/16 x 17 11/16 x 6 11/16in). -2

Provenance Richard, Lord Attenborough, acquired directly from the artist in Zimbabwe, circa 1987. In 1987, the year in which these sculptures were made, Newsweek reported, “Though Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, the Shona art scene is only now undergoing a renaissance. In a decade, prices for their best work have shot up several thousand percent. God may well be in the stone, but these remarkable artists are in the details...Shona sculpture is perhaps the most important new art form to emerge from Africa in this century...Rockefellers and Rothschilds were early connoisseurs of Shona sculpture. Prince Charles has become a collector. Not long ago, Sir Richard Attenborough came to Zimbabwe...before leaving, the director shipped 29 crates of Shona pieces home to England.” The celebrated British director Richard Attenborough (1923-2014) spent an extended period in Zimbabwe filming the 1987 anti-apartheid drama Cry Freedom because of the tense political situation in South Africa at the time. Set in South Africa the late 1970s, Cry Freedom is based on the true story of the South African Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko and Donald Woods, the liberal white editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper. He fell for the country, saying “Zimbabwe is the most beautiful country, with a warmth of hospitality” (Attenborough, 1987). In addition to his purchases at Tengenenge, including works by Tom Blomefield, John Takawira, Bernard Manyandure, and Damien Manuhwa as well as the present lot, he also became a patron of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Having been made a Knight Bachelor in the 1976 New Year Honours, Attenborough was created a life peer as Baron Attenborough, of Richmond upon Thames, in 1993. Also in 1987, Matemera won the prestigious Award of Outdoor Sculpture at the Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The unsigned work compares closely to Blind Man (1987) (illustrated in Sultan 1992 p. 73 and Winter-Irving 1993, p.102): “For his Blind Man each day begins with night and ends in darkness. He gropes for sight and never finds it, his eyes like a vacant lot are never used... To leave Matemera’s sculptures is like waking from a dream, and it is from Matemera’s dreams that the subject often comes. Sometimes his dreams are peaceful dreams, sometimes nightmares, and it seems that we wake in fright. Then we find comfort in the world outside art.” (Winter-Irving 1993, p.102). Other comparable works, Blind Man (1988) and Possessed by Woman (1988) were included in the Contemporary Stone Carving from Zimbabwe exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 22 July-25 November 1990. Bibliography R. Attenborough, ‘Introduction’ in Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom: A Pictoral Record, (London, 1987). O. Sultan, Life in Stone, (Harare, 1992). R. Wilkenson, ‘Romancing the stone : a renaissance for Zimbabwe’s Shona sculpture’ in Newsweek, (New York, 14 September 1987), p.80. C. Winter-Irving, Contemporary Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe, (Tortola, 1993), p.62.