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Shawn Mugobi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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CHINHOYI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN


DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ART AND DESIGN

Name: Mkwangwanyah Resilience


Registration Number: C21146855V
Program: Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Visual
Communication & Multimedia Design

Level: 1.1

Year: 2021

Question: Choose any three artists from the list given below and critically
evaluate their contribution to the contemporary art movement. Use at least
three of each’s outstanding artwork to justify your evaluation. For each artist
include a brief biography.

Chosen Artists: Jackson Pollock, Chiko Chazunguza and Gareth Nyandoro


Wikipedia defines contemporary art as the art of today, produce in the second half
of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Different art movements from across the
world have influenced our contemporary art. In addition, different socioeconomic
factors as well as different political and ethnic backgrounds have a significant
influence on how artists express themselves through their art.

Jackson Pollock
“The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.” -Jackson Pollock

Born in 1912 in the state of Wyoming in the United States of America “Jackson Pollock was an
influential American painter, and the leading force behind the abstract expressionist movement
in the art world.” artsy.net considers him a titan of Abstract Expressionism an a pioneer of an
acrobatic process which produced large-scale, gestural, all-over drip paintings or action
paintings.

The Flame, 1938 by Jackson Pollock


Courtesy of www.Jackson-Pollock.org

His art evolved as he grew through different


phases of his life. Before he moved from
Guggenheim (in California), “his imagery had
been congested, his colours sombre, and the general mood of his paintings anxious and
conflicted.” His style changed a few more times and alluded to “abstracts of human and animal
forms. He also started using mainly black paint instead of a variety of colour that his earlier
paintings showed. This can be seen in his painting Number 7.
Number 7, 1951 by
Jackson Pollock.
Courtesy of the National Gallery
of Art

“My painting does not come


from the easel. I need the
resistance of a hard surface.
On the floor I am more at ease.
I feel nearer, more part of the
painting, since this way I can
walk around it, work from the
four sides and literally be in the
painting. When I am in my
painting, I’m not aware of what
I’m doing. It is only after a sort
of ‘get acquainted’ period that I
see what I have been about. I
have no fear of making
changes, destroying the image,
etc., because the painting has
a life of its own. I try to let it
come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess.
Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out
well.”
– Jackson Pollock
Because of his unique art style, dynamic approach to art, he became known as Jack the Dripper.
His unconventional and dynamic approach inspired artists like Jonas Fisch and Taylor Thomas.
His art impacted artists in Zimbabwe as well. David Chinyama being one Zimbabwean artist
who attests to Pollock being influential in his art.

Chikonzero (Chiko) Chazunguza

My Art Guides (2019) tells us Chiko Chazunguza was born in 1987 and that he “is a visual artist
and provocateur, whose multidisciplinary artworks raise searching questions about the
postcolonial condition and about the unstable role and nature of art in its postcolonial context.”
His most fascinating pieces are those that restore a feeling of ceremonial order and life's deeper
mysteries to the viewer while also providing incisive, yet subtle social and political commentary.

Bell (2013)

“I wanted to investigate the struggle


that people have to go through
because of their systematized way
of life wherein control becomes a
basic commodity that they feel they
must have,”

-Chiko Chazunguza

Mixed Bag Mag (2013) “Originally from just outside Harare, Zimbabwe, Chiko spent seven
years in Sofia, Bulgaria on an art scholarship. While in Sofia he ‘was trained in the classical
modes of printmaking, drawing and painting’. Upon arriving home though Chiko realized that in
order to expand as an artist he would have to enter back into the culture of his youth so he could
find a visual language that would be his true to his way of scripting a story.”
Human walls, 2013 by Chiko Chazunguza
Courtesy of Mixed Bag Mag

Passage by Chiko Chazunguza.


Courtesy of Mixed Bag Mag

As much as he may have drawn inspiration from


artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Pablo Picasso,
Chizunguza retained his originally an expressed his
art in a way that was true to his history and tradition.

Gareth Nyandoro
According to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Nyandoro was born in Bikita,
Zimbabwe. He obtained a National Diploma in Fine Art from Harare Polytechnic in 2003 before
furthering his studies in Creative Arts and Design at the Chinhoyi University of Technology,
where he qualified in 2008. In 2015 Nyandoro embarked on a one-year residency at the
Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

Mitsvairo, Cobra, Vim, 2018 by


Gareth Nyandoro
Courtesy of Van Doren Waxter
Nyandoro grew interested in the methods of etching because of the work he had done in
printmaking. This interest pushed him into developing an original art technique he dubbed
Kuchekacheka. This technique involves the use of blades to cut out different bits of shapes. With

Musika weTomatoes, 2020 by Gareth


Nyandoro
Courtesy of The Armory Show

Nyandoro’s art centres on human interactions


relative to the environment around him. His art
is extremely relatable to Zimbabweans because
it seems to be inspired by and captures the true
essence of urban Zimbabwe

Huku Pano, Gareth Nyandoro


Courtesy of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art
Africa.

An art movement’s longevity and theme can only be determined in retrospect. The only certainty
is that as time progresses, people change. This change induces growth and this, in turn, pushes
our contemporary art into growing as well. We may not know what the future of Zimbabwean
Contemporary art hold. We can only revel in the beauty and purity of emotion expressed to us by
the magnificent artists that call our country home.

References :
https://jackson-pollock.org/
https://jackson-pollock.org/images/paintings/the-flame.jpg
https://www.artsy.net/artist/jackson-pollock/works-for-sale
https://allafrica.com/stories/201004270054.html
https://www.people.vcu.edu/~djbromle/modern-art/02/Jackson-Pollock/index.htm
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
“Artist Jackson Pollock painting in his Springs, NY studio --1949.” Courtesy of The Selvedge
Yard. https://selvedgeyard.com/2009/01/05/jackson-pollock-jack-the-dripper/
https://myartguides.com/national-participations/venice/zimbabwe/
https://mixedbagmag.com/2013/01/chiko-chazunguza/
https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/gareth-nyandoro-2/
https://www.thearmoryshow.com/content/armory-access/17-tiwani/artwork/gny-074.jpg
https://www.thearmoryshow.com/armory-access/tiwani

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