Notes

The Baboon Hunt is one of a couple of landmark sculptures by Andrew Mudyiwa, who was thought to be a Catholic brother from Serima Mission, one of a handful of mission stations in Zimbabwe that specialised in teaching wood carving. The piece was originally bought in Zimbabwe by the well-known Johannesburg art collector Adeline Pohl. The invoice says it was carved by ‘Brother Andrew’ but little is known for certain about the artist other than his name. Tragically, he was rumoured to have been murdered by ZANLA guerrillas in 1978. Serima Mission, near Masvingo (formerly known as Fort Victoria), was one of the three main centres in the country that taught wood carving – the others being Cyrene Mission (near Bulawayo) and St Faith’s Mission (near Rusape) where the artist Job Kekana taught. Brother Andrew is thought to have studied at Serima Mission, because the figures in the present lot stylistically resemble the carved figures that embellish St Mary’s Church which was designed by Father John Groeber of the Swiss Bethlehem Mission and completed in 1956. Groeber was responsible for teaching wood carving at the mission and he also established Driefontein Carving School, which produced some of Zimbabwe’s great stone carvers, and Brother Andrew may have followed him there. The Baboon Hunt is carved from a single piece of indigenous hardwood and is a triumph in its expression of a fast disappearing traditional rural culture.

Provenance

Purchased by Adeline Pohl circa 1973 and thence to the current owner.