Joseph Ndandarika (1940 – May 1991) was a

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

known for his figurative works.

Early life and education

Ndandarika was born in

Salisbury, Rhodesia Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metropolitan province. The city is situat ...

and grew up in

Rusape Rusape is a town in eastern Zimbabwe. Location It is located in Makoni District in Manicaland Province, in northeastern Zimbabwe. It lies approximately , by road, southeast of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Rusape is situated on the main roa ...

. He was the son of a Malawian bus driver and a Shona mother. His mother was artistic and occasionally worked as a model for the sculptor Job Kekana, another Rusape resident. After completing primary school, he attended a Catholic boarding school at Serima Mission in the late 1950s. His artistic talent was identified there by Fr John Groeber and Cornelius Manguma, who trained him in drawing and woodcarving. While at Serima he was chosen by Groeber to paint several murals inside St. Mary's church. After leaving Serima in 1959, he moved to Salisbury and joined

Frank McEwen Francis Jack McEwen, OBE (19 April 1907 – 15 January 1994) was an English artist, teacher, and museum administrator. He is best remembered today for his efforts to bring attention to the work of Shona artists in Rhodesia and for helping ...

's Workshop School in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

in 1960. Initially he became one of McEwen's leading painters, specializing in landscapes and witchcraft scenes. Due to McEwen's preference for untrained, pagan artists, Ndandarika hid his training at Serima for many years. He also developed a new persona as having been the grandson of a sangoma, alleging that he had undergone extensive training with him. The height of Ndandarika's painting career came when

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

acquired his 1962 oil, "Bushmen Running From the Rain." Ndandarika's signature was his mixing of the paints on the canvas rather than the palette, a technique that created a highly uneven surface.

Later life and exhibitions

After several years of painting, Ndandarika was sent by McEwen to train in stone sculpture with

Joram Mariga Joram Mariga has been called (and believed himself to be) the “Father of Zimbabwean Sculpture” because of his influence on the local artistic community starting in the 1950s and continuing until his death in 2000. The sculptural movement of whi ...

. During the mid-1960s he gradually shifted more and more towards sculpting, and would end up in all of McEwen's major exhibitions that made Zimbabwean stone sculpture famous. Ndandarika's biggest impact may have been convincing McEwen that in Shona mythology, spirits inhabited rock formations. This formulation had a major impact in McEwen's marketing of his sculpture, leading him to claim that his sculptors were unleashing the spirit in the stone in the course of their work. Ndandarika was able to keep selling through the hard times of the 1970s following McEwen's departure from Rhodesia, and during the 1980s Zimbabwean arts revival he was one of the country's most prominent "first generation" sculptors. One of Ndandarika’s sculptural works, called ''Telling Secrets'', was depicted on a Zimbabwean stamp issued to commemorate

Commonwealth Day Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations, held on the second Monday in March. While the date holds some official status in select member states of the Commonwealth, observances of the date are not uniform, an ...

on 14 March 1983. It formed the 11c value in a set completed with works by

Henry Munyaradzi Henry Munyaradzi, also known as Henry Munyaradzi Mudzengerere, (1931 – 27 February 1998) was a Zimbabwean sculptor. The sculptural movement of which he was part is usually referred to as "Shona sculpture" (see Shona art and Art of Zimbabwe ...

, John Takawira and

Nicholas Mukomberanwa Nicholas Mukomberanwa (1940–12 November 2002), was a Zimbabwean sculpture, sculptor and art teacher. He was among the most famous protégés of the Workshop School at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He was a mentor to the Mukomberanwa Family ...

Selected solo or group exhibitions

Source: *1963 New Art from Rhodesia,

Commonwealth Institute The Commonwealth Education Trust was a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational pr ...

, London *1964 International Art exhibition,

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

, Zambia *1968 New African Art; organised by MoMA, New York, USA *1971 Sculpture Contemporaine des Shonas d’Afrique,

Musée Rodin The Musée Rodin () of Paris, France, is an art museum that was opened in 1919, primarily dedicated to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. It has two sites: the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris, as well as just ...

, Paris, France *1981 Retrospective Exhibition of Shona Sculpture, Zimbabwe House, London *1985 Contemporary Stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe, Irving Sculpture Gallery,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia *1987 International Contemporary Art fair,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, USA *1988 Chicago International Art Exposition,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, USA *1988 Australia Art Expo,

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

, Sydney *1990 Contemporary Stone Carving from Zimbabwe,

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barb ...

, UK *1990 Stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe, Millesgården Museum, Stockholm, Sweden *2000 Chapungu: Custom and Legend – A Culture in Stone,

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, UK

Personal life

Ndandarika was married for a time to the sculptor Locardia Ndandarika, and his children Ronnie Drigo and Virginia Ndandarika are also artists. He also served as a teacher and

mentor Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

to a number of artists, including Jonathan Mhondorohuma.

References

External links