Sylvester Mubayi (1942 – 13 December 2022) was a Zimbabwean sculptor.

Early life and education

Sylvester Mubayi was born in 1942 in the Chihota Reserve near

Marondera Marondera (known as Marandellas until 1982) is a city in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe, located about 72 km east of Harare. History It was first known as Marandella's Kraal, corrupted from Marondera, chief of the ruling Rozvi Empire, VaRozv ...

, Zimbabwe, the sixth child in a family of nine. He left school aged sixteen and worked as a tobacco grader. In 1966 he moved to

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

(then Salisbury) and worked at the Chibuku Breweries.In the exhibition catalogue (1997) for "Talking Stones VI"; ed. Prichard N, Eton, Berkshire (no ISBN)

Later life and exhibitions

File:British Museum Great Court, London, UK - Diliff (cropped).jpg, Click to view ''Skeletal Baboon Spirit'' in British Museum collection. defaul

Mubayi joined the Tengenenge, Tengenenge Sculpture Community in April 1967 as one of its early members. In 1969,

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 ...

, who was the founding director of the Rhodes National Gallery in Harare, opened a workshop school to encourage the development of local artists and his wife Mary (née McFadden) established Vukutu, a sculptural farm near

Nyanga Nyanga may mean: *Nyanga Province, of Gabon * Nyanga River, in Gabon and Congo *Nyanga people, an ethnic group from Congo *Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a town *Nyanga District, Zimbabwe *Nyanga National Park in Zimbabwe * Nyanga, Western Cape, a township in S ...

: Mubayi was the first sculptor to work there. McEwen lauded Mubayi as the "greatest sculptor of all time" and after McEwen's death his bequest of sculptures to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

included six pieces by Mubayi. According to Jonathan Zilbert, Mubayi at that time used skeletons as a recurring theme in his work, intending them to illustrate ancestral spirits and blood sacrifice. An exhibition of sculptures which toured South African cities in 1968–9 included a stone carving ''Nzuzu'' (''Waterspirit'') by Mubayi and it won an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Award for sculpture. Mubayi was an

artist in residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

at the

Chapungu Sculpture Park The Chapungu Sculpture Park is a sculpture park in Msasa, Harare, Zimbabwe, which displays the work of Zimbabwean stone sculptors. It was founded in 1970 by Roy Guthrie, who was instrumental in promoting the work of its sculptors worldwide. One ...

and subsequently lived and worked in

Chitungwiza Chitungwiza is an urban centre and town of Harare Province in Zimbabwe. History As of the 2022 census, Chitungwiza had a population of 371,244. There are two main highways which connect the city to Harare namely Seke road and Chitungwiza r ...

; his sculptures are inspired by stories of spirits and the

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

, combining human and animal forms. The stones used include springstone and

lepidolite Lepidolite is a lilac-gray or rose-colored member of the mica group of minerals with chemical formula . It is the most abundant lithium-bearing mineral and is a secondary source of this metal. It is the major source of the alkali metal rubidium. ...

. In 1988, Michael Shepherd, a British art critic commented:

“Now that Henry Moore is dead, who is the greatest living stone sculptor? Were I to choose, I would choose from three Zimbabwean sculptors — Sylvester Mubayi,
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 o ...
and
Joseph Ndandarika Joseph Ndandarika (1940 – May 1991) was a Zimbabwean sculptor known for his figurative works. Early life and education Ndandarika was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia and grew up in Rusape. He was the son of a Malawian bus driver and a Shona mother. ...
.”

The catalogue ''Chapungu: Culture and Legend – A Culture in Stone'' for an exhibition at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

in 2000 depicts Mubayi's sculptures ''Protected by our Spirits'' (Springstone, 1999) on p. 34-35, ''Spirit Bird Prays for Rain'' (Springstone, 1997) on p. 90-91 and ''Returning to my Sekuru (Elder)'' (Springstone, 1997) on p. 98-99.Catalogue published by Chapungu Sculpture Park, 2000, 136pp, with photographs by Jerry Hardman-Jones and text by Roy Guthrie (no ISBN) An exhibition of the same name toured in the US in 2003, with Mubayi's ''Traditional Healer'' presented at the

Chicago Botanic Garden The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands in the Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens in four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shore ...

and the

Garfield Park Conservatory Garfield Park Conservatory, located in Garfield Park in Chicago, is one of the largest greenhouse conservatories in the United States. Often referred to as "landscape art under glass", the Garfield Park Conservatory occupies approximately insi ...

. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe held a retrospective of his life's work in August 2008 to much acclaim. Their permanent collection includes ''The Skeleton Man'', and ''Witch and Her Mate''. In 2017, Mubayi represented Zimbabwe at the 57th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. His sculpture exhibited there included ''Snail Crossing the River'', ''Spirit Buffalo'' and ''War Victim''.

Selected solo or group exhibitions

*1971 Sculpture Contemporaine des Shonas d’Afrique,

Musée Rodin The Musée Rodin ( en, Rodin Museum) in Paris, France, is a 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 ...

, Paris, France *1978

MOMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, New York, USA *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 Barbar ...

, UK *2000 Chapungu: Custom and Legend – A Culture in Stone,

, UK

Death

Mubayi died in Chitungwiza on 13 December 2022, at the age of 80.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mubayi, Sylvester 1942 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Zimbabwean sculptors 21st-century Zimbabwean sculptors People from Mashonaland East Province