Tonderai Marezva (b. 1974) Zimbabwean, Tall Beautiful Feminine African Shona Carving. Made of serpentine. Titled "Mobel Sister." Smooth face, neck, and hands emerging from rough figural solid piece. Signed at bottom on back. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 24 in. 

#3714 . 

Tonderai Marezva was born in 1974 and is one of eight children, with three sisters and four brothers. Two of his brothers sculpt as well. Tonderai started sculpting in 1991. He was trained by the well-known Shona sculptors Nesbert Mukumberanwa and Jemali Chituyo. Tonderai lives in Chitungwiza, the sprawling township about one-half hour out of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Tonderai says that he is inspired by his cultural heritage and the spirits. 

The art of stone carving in Africa goes back many centuries, with the akwanshi (“stone of dead ancestors” in the Ekoi language) monoliths from the Cross River region in Nigeria dating back possibly as early as 300 BC. Central Zimbabwe contains the “Great Dyke,” a source of serpentine rocks of many types including a hard variety locally called springstone that became a particularly sought after material for carvers. An early precolonial culture of Shona peoples settled the high plateau around 900 AD and “Great Zimbabwe,” which dates from about 1250-1450 AD, was a stone-walled town showing evidence in its archaeology of skilled stone working, both aesthetically and functionally. African cultures venerated organic materials, and carved deities, animals, and their fellow tribesmen out of wood, stone, shell, and much more. In 1957 Frank McEwen was appointed as the first curator of the new National Gallery in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). He had previously been curator at the Musee Rodin in Paris and had links with various artists of the time, including Picasso (himself heavily influenced by African art) and Matisse. McEwen was impressed with the talent of the indigenous artists he met in Zimbabwe, and encouraged them to paint and later to sculpt. Because of his contacts in the international art world, he was able to give the movement that later became known as “Shona sculpture” (after Zimbabwe’s most numerous tribe) its first international exposure.

Commensurate with age.