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The name Zimbabwe means "stone houses" and celebrates the country's ancient tradition of stonework. From the 11th to 15th centuries, formerly scattered groups of Nguni speaking peoples built one of the world's greatest architectural wonders known as Great Zimbabwe. From this sprawling stone empire, much of which still stands today, indigenous Zimbabweans developed one of the most sophisticated agricultural, mining and trading societies of its time. In an effort to revive this rich history of stonework, a small group of Zimbabwean artists returned to the medium in the 1950s. Their deeply cultural stone sculpture amazed world audiences at a series of landmark exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Mankind in London and the Rodin Museum in Paris in the 1970s. European and American art critics lauded Zimbabwe's early legends like Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Sylvester Mubayi and Joseph Ndandarika as the natural successors to Henry Moore.
Despite their fame however, nearly all of Zimbabwe's early legends lived in poverty due to unscrupulous gallery owners and promoters. The vast majority of today's sculptors in Zimbabwe still live in poverty as tourists and many gallery owners unfairly compensate them for endless hours of dedication and skill. Only a remarkable few, most notably Dominic Benhura and Gedion Nyanhongo, have developed the types of sophisticated business relationships with established international galleries that many American and European artists have enjoyed for decades. These galleries have helped Dominic and Gedion establish common international pricing standards and have placed their work in major private and public collections around the world. Perhaps most importantly, the financial freedom these artists have worked so hard to achieve enables them to focus solely on their profession, making the quality of their sculpture comparable to that of the most prestigious sculptors from the Americas, Asia and Europe. This international level of artistic comparison is critical to helping artists in Zimbabwe develop their unlimited potential as "artists" rather than narrowly confining them to comparisons within ethnic or generational groups ("Shona sculpture" is a widely used misnomer as many important artists from Zimbabwe are not Shona; and the terms "first", "second" and "third" generations unnecessarily bunch artists into age groups that are hard to define and simply not used in Zimbabwe by the artists themselves). Due to these positive developments spearheaded by Dominic and Gedion within Zimbabwe, a promising pool of younger artists is emerging that has successful and sustainable role models to emulate.
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