Joseph Muzondo

Joseph Muzondo

Joseph Muzondo is a notable Zimbabwean painter and sculptor whose works have been exhibited in the 1980s and 1990s.

Background

Joseph Muzondo was born in 1953 in Masvingo. He failed to complete his schooling due to his involvement in politics with Zanu PF since the late 1960s. Taught informally by his uncle, Joseph Muzondo subsequently joined BAT Visual Art Studios in Durban and was the first student of Frank McEwen's Workshop School which opened in 1981. In 1983 Muzondo went to Tanzania to study textile design and attended a summer academy in Australia. He has participated in group exhibitions in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Mozambique, Sweden, Zambia and Zimbabwe, winning awards for sculpture and graphics in the National Gallery Annual Exhibitions.^[1] His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

Career

Joseph Muzondo is considered one of the finest artists of the second generation, being equally at home in printmaking, painting, drawing, textile design and sculpture. His greatest impact has been in sculpture, where his comment on social issues is dramatic, incisive and emotive. These works are composed of various sculpted sections fitted together to create the whole. He is an artist of great talent and integrity.^[2]