Moonhead (1972) Sculpture by Henry Munyaradzi

Henry Munyaradzi (1931-1998)

The son of a spirit seer who left the family at an early age, Munyaradzi spent his childhood and youth without schooling, as was common for rural Zimbabwe at the time, working as a herdsman and a
hunter with dog, bow and arrow. He worked as a village blacksmith, carpenter, painter and tobacco sorter, among other jobs. In 1967, at the age of thirty-six, he became acquainted with the Tengenenge Artists' Colony, founded by tobacco planter Tom Blomefield. It was there that he first saw sculptors at work. The idea of the artist colony changed his life. He became self-taught in his sculptural mastery, and he soon became a leading sculptor at Tengenenge. Soon his works were shown in the National Gallery of Salisbury (now Harare). Exhibitions
at the Musée Rodin in Paris and New York's Museum of Modern Art followed, establishing his international reputation in the early 1970s.
In 1975 he left Tengenenge. After a solo exhibition in London in 1984, he was able to buy his own farm in Ruwa, southeast of Harare. From 1985 until his death in 1998, he lived and worked there in close contact with his family.
worked there in close contact with nature. His peculiar, simple style is so concise and sculpturally perfect that he cannot be confused with any other Shona sculptor.

Exhibitions

Since the first exhibition in 1968 at the National Gallery of Rhodesia in Salisbury (now Harare), Henry Munyaradzi has been present locally and internationally with solo and group exhibitions.
He has had eight solo exhibitions in London, Los Angeles, Berlin, Heidelberg and Harare. His works are in the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and alongside those of Henry Moore, Constantin Brâncusi and Rodin in the Feingarten Gallery in Los Angeles, the Art Center Berlin and in museums and private collections around the world.

• Nationality: ZIMBABWE
• Date of birth : 1931
• Artistic domains: Represented by a Gallery,
• Groups: Zimbabwean Contemporary Artists Artists presented by a gallery