Lovers

Today's Featured Sculpture

Lovers by Fabian Madamombe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ref No: 757

Title: Lovers

Sculptor: Fabian Madamombe
Medium: Opaline

Dimentions: 205x80x62

Weight: ±500Kgs

Sculptor Information 

Born in 1953 in Kadoma, Fabian Madamombe is considered to be an interesting member of the second generation of artists. Although Zimbabwean, he was educated in Zambia, but finally achieved artistic qualifications at the B.A.T. Workshops held at the National Gallery in Harare. The three years he spent there provided a framework in which he was able to explore with more freedom his ideas and ambitions - being able to experiment with drawing (life drawing from the human model as well as still life), painting and printmaking. 

He was self-taught as a carver, having first been introduced to the skill by his uncle who worked in wood, and in the beginning carved small figures from his imagination. He saw Tapfuma Gutsa carving in stone and immediately tried this new medium for himself. Still a great admirer of Tapfuma, he has received much help and guidance from this well-known young artist.

Fabian’s sculpture comes from many sources - his imagination, the human figure and more abstracted themes taken from the natural world around him. Much of his work is large scale with courageous areas of raw or rough-hewn stone left exposed. 

The smaller or medium sized works such as Bird or Modern Lovers are abstracted and have some smoother polished surfaces - but most, like his recent pieces, show an overriding fascination with the possibilities of texture within the stone - using lines, punch holes and flat, rough areas which retain the outside, orange ‘skin’ of the stone.

Working at Chapungu from 1988 until 2000, Fabian favours the Black and Green Serpentine as well as the harder Springstone.

He says of his work “I just want to show people what my talent is capable of. Sometimes the sculpture has a specific message but at other times it simply communicates ideas about volume, space and form.”

In 1993 a great honour was bestowed upon Fabian. He was selected from nine sculptures around the world; to go to Millfield, Somerset in England. This is a very elite and exclusive school, which have a beautiful “Art Garden”. Fabian was commissioned to sculpt a piece for them. He spent six weeks at Millfield and carved an interesting abstract sculpture out of stone.