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Lazarus TAKAWIRA, 1952

Lazarus Takawira, the youngest of three Takawira brothers, cannot be contained by the success of his older brothers, Bernard and the late John. His reputation is personally established and his work easily recognisable. Lazarus cannot separate his life from his art, and his sculpture is primarily a form of self expression. Rather than exploring his relationship to his Shona culture through his sculpture, he explores the relationship of his Shona culture to himself. His Christian beliefs are profound and his sculpture puts his personal life on public display. It largely depicts his reactions to events which have taken place in his life, in particular his relationships with other people. To emphasise that his work is self-referential, he will often incorporate a self-portrait into the stone which he sees as his signature.

Lazarus Takawira's sculptures are often a cathartic response to events of some complexity. "My Recent Problem" defies description of the problem. The stone has been carved with tremendous energy and a brute force. There is a confusion of mass and planes. This was Takawira's response, to the attraction of a girlfriend to another man. Rather than fighting the other man, he fought the stone.

In a sense, Lazarus Takawira's sculptures are a response to Nicholas Mukomberanwa's comment: "You must put your own history into the stone rather than present the history of the stone only. " His sculptures not only tell the viewer much about the artist, they objectify his relationship with himself and make him look at his problems as he would those of another person.

Lazarus Takawira is a large man like his brothers Bernard and the late John, and his emotions and feelings are on an appropriate scale. If his sculptures are small and compact the impact of a statement about his personal feelings is not reduced through the size of his art.

source: CAMA.org.za and "Life in Stone, Zimbabwean Sculpture", Olivier Sultan, 1994

Lazarus Takawira at his studio (c) 2006

[read about the History of Shona Sculpture here]