HENRY MUNYARADZI (1931 - 1998 )

Henry Munyaradzi was born in Guruve in 1931. He had no formal education and it was only in 1967 that his creative talent began to emerge when he joined the rural community of sculptors at Tengenenge. Munyaradzi stayed at Tengenenge until 1975 and during his eight years there he firmly established himself as the master sculptor of that community.

Even within the community of sculptors at Tengenenge Henry (as he is universally known) preferred to work on his own and he soon developed a distinctive style. Describing Munyaradzi's work in 1983, Christopher Till, then the Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, wrote: "Henry's interest is sculptural perfection. He remains close to an aesthetic of art for art's sake. His work has a highly individual stylised stamp, and is readily appreciated and understood by a Western               aesthetically-oriented public."

Munyaradzi was commonly influenced by the natural shape of the stone and would carefully choose a stone that he saw as having the sculpture within it. As Henry explained: "Every stone has got a sculpture in it, but only a sculptor can see it and release it."  Or, as London art critic Michael Shepherd wrote: "Michelangelo's spiritual ideal, of the individual form waiting to be released from the individual stone, is even more apparent here than in most of Michelangelo's own marbles."

His sculptural technique involved the careful selection of the right stone, the smoothing of all or part of its surface with only a minimal amount of  re-shaping, and  - typically - the etching into the surface of his trademark facial features -features which have become widely recognised and univer

sally admired as representing sculptural perfection.

Because of its essential, though deceptive, simplicity, Munyaradzi's style was, and is still, much copied, but it is never successfully duplicated. He was as       uncomplicated as his art. He enjoyed sculpting and he enjoyed the forms that he created. Throughout his distinguished career as a full-time sculptor for more than 30 years, Munyaradzi derived a great sense of satisfaction and achievement from his work - if his ideas had been accomplished.

Internationally acclaimed, his work is to be found in the permanent collections of The National Galleries of Zimbabwe, Botswana and Malawi, The Museum fur Volkerkunde, Frankfurt, The Phoenix Art Museum, U.S.A., and The Tabac Museum in Vienna.   

HM30 Owl Spirit 40kgs

560x350x190mm

£6000

HM255 The good Shepherd

225kgs 990x550x400mm

£25,000

HM255 The good Shepherd

225kgs 990x550x400mm

£25,000