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^{Expressive of the source and soul of Zimbabwe’s stone sculpture –Tengenenge- the exhibition at the national gallery of Prague shows the Czech people that contemporary sculpture from an African country can be as deep rooted in local traditions as their own art.}

^{Comprising works with their nexus in both traditional and modern Africa, the exhibition comes from a collection of sculpture from Tengenenge brought to the Czech republic by Mirka Sodomkova and the former ambassador of the Czech republic in Zimbabwe, Jaroslav Olsa Jnr.}

^{Professor Milan Knizak, director- general of the National Gallery in Prague, has conceived the exhibition. Curated by Lenka Pastyrikova, the exhibition is accompanied by a fine catalogue, the writing offering a new realisation of sculpture at Tengenenge. The random display of work at Tengenenge, non-hieratic, allowed the selectors to attribute their own significance to each sculpture, using intuitive judgment for a broad selection by respected and unknown sculptors.}

^{Perhaps the freedom of speech at Tengenenge, allowing artists of varying religious and cultural persuasions to speak up and out in their credos had bearing on what was chosen. In his catalogue essay “Art Without Pathos”, professor Milan knizak comments: “Artistic erudition seems to be a natural quality of most African, and a strong feeling for tradition, continuously manifest in African music and dancing enables the creation of artistic symbols without restraint, and preliminary preparation.”}

^{Here is a reminder of the earliest Tengenege artists moved easily and without restraint and constraint from making drums or masks out of wood, form being drummers and dancers for the Nyau or Nyango or the Ben to making stone sculpture, transmitting their knowledge of the masquerades into their stones.}

^{In her catalogue essay “The Lure of the stones of Zimbabwe” Celia Winter Irving comments: “The stone sculpture provide food for thought about the social importance of the African traditions and the intangible inheritance, about the upholding of family life and marriage and the social obligations of the artists.”}

^{The exhibition makes plain that these things remain paramount at Tengenenge and that life is still based on their precepts.}

^{The exhibition catalogue photographs range from bird’s eye-views of the Tengenenge setting and detailed close-ups sculptures, The first photo gives stature, grandeur and majesty to female faces sets set in stone by the late Erina Gosta.}

^{By C.W. Irving.}

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