Bernard Matemera

He spoke Zezuru, one of the Shona dialects, and had four years of formal primary schooling: like other boys, he herded cattle, made clay pots and carved wood.

In 1963 Matemera was working as a contract tractor driver for tobacco farmers in Tengenenge and met Tom Blomefield, whose farm had extensive deposits of serpentine stone suitable for carving.

Matemara was one of the first artists to take up sculpting full-time, joining others including Henry Munyaradzi, Josia Manzi, Fanizani Akuda, Sylvester Mubayi and Leman Moses, who formed part of what is now called the First Generation of Zimbabwean sculptors in hard stones.

[2][3][4] Works by Matemera and his colleagues were exhibited in the Rhodes National Gallery whose founding director, Frank McEwen, was very influential in bringing them to the attention of the international art community.

Celia Winter-Irving chose Matemera's work "Man turning into hippo" to illustrate the front cover of the paperback version of her classic book on Zimbabwean sculpture.

He is the creator of sculpture in the raw — huge naked figures with breasts, buttocks and bulges, charged with sexual energy and all at odds with their massive proportion and bulk....