Lift me Mama
Lift me Mama, early 2000s, Colleen Madamombe, Springstone, REDMG: 2021.14.3, Reading Foundation for Art collection, gift of two Reading collectors. Copyright: the artist. Photo: Reading Museum, Reading Borough Council
Woman
Woman, early 2000s, Agnes Nyanhongo, green serpentine, REDMG: 2021.14.4, Reading Foundation for Art Collection, gift of two Reading collectors. Copyright: the artist. Photo: Reading Museum, Reading Borough Council
Both Agnes Nyanhongo and Colleen Madamonde have international reputations. They live and work in northern Zimbabwe.
Agnes Nyanhongo and Colleen Madamonde are part of the second generation of artists involved in the remarkable blossoming of Zimbabwean sculpture since the 1950s.
Zimbabwe (meaning ‘country of stone buildings’) is unique amongst African countries because of its tradition of building with stone. It has a rich variety of unusual rocks found in the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, an extraordinary geographic feature that can be seen from space.
In her sculptures Mademonde exploits the unusual colour variations within the stone. She does not add colour.
The donors are local people with a love of geology, who were first attracted to the unusual rocks being carved and then the imagery. They have amassed a significant art collection and given much of their Zimbabwean sculpture to the British Museum.
