Ended Sentinel Guardian Ancestor by Moses Masaya

Details
Condition Used - Good
Color Black
Artwork Subject Face

Sentinel Guardian Ancestor by Moses Masaya is carved from Serpentine stone. It measures 37 inches tall and about 13 by 13 inches at the base and weighs about 220 pounds. At the time of my purchase, it was the largest of his pieces allowed to leave Zimbabwe for purchase.
Moses Masaya is a Shona Sculpture pioneer who inspired the current generation of sculptors, and his work was featured in the Rodin Museum 1971 exhibition which first brought the beauty of Shona Sculpture to the attention of the world’s art critics and collectors.
Moses Masaya was born in Nyanga, eastern Zimbabwe. His first exposure to sculpture came after he left school in 1966, when a local artist, Frank Vanji, taught him the basics. The pivotal moment, however, came in 1968 when Moses first saw the work of Joram Mariga, historically the most influential of Zimbabwe’s first generation of stone sculpture who quickly recognised Masaya’s talent.
In 1970 he joined the Vukutu Workshop in Nyanga, which was set up by Frank McEwen (Director of the National Gallery) as a quiet rural retreat where leading artists could work undisturbed by the pace of modern life. His career received a tremendous early boost the following year when a number of his sculptures featured prominently in the exhibition of Shona sculpture held at the Musée Rodin in Paris.
Masaya always preferred to carve the green serpentine stone plentiful near his rural Nyanga home. Throughout his sculpting career, he continued to impose his own lines on the stone, often changing the stone’s original shape quite dramatically. His faces and figures show his preference for sharp, clean lines. 'This is my vision of creation,' he once said. 'If I were the creator, this is how I would have made them.'
His art is rich in imagery, symbolism and traditional socio-religious morals. He sculpts elongated evocative heads with stylised angular features to portray feelings and experiences common to mankind: 'Mother & Child', husband, wife and sibling love, or family bonding, are the themes he depicted.
Some of his more mythical stylised stone heads have hypnotic eye expresssions - which give the sculpture an innate and spirtual force of its own. He also explored bird life and fauna in an unmistakable style.
However, the core concern of his sculpture was to give reverence and acknowledgement to his ancestral beliefs and heritage - by creating forms from Shona ontology.
His work reached its peak in the mid 80's, with overwhelming demand for his sculpture from the US, Germany, Belgium, Paris, Sweden, Denmark and the UK.

Pickup DetailsFlexible on pick up!