About

The Guthrie Collection

During the last 50 years there can be few spontaneous movements that chart so effectively the birth of the creative process, as the story of stone sculpture in Zimbabwe in the second half of the 20th Century.  This collection, along with many others compiled by Roy Guthrie over the last four decades, captures the history of this unique artistic happening, with integrity and provenance.  The 'Guthrie Collection' contains monumental, iconic works celebrating the master sculptors of Zimbabwe during the great awakening of the ‘McEwan Movement’.  Now, for the first time, some of these works are for sale, for museums, collectors or institutions.

Having supported the movement from the 1960s onward; having been the principle support during the darkest years of the ‘70s and ‘80s; having been the natural successor to Frank McEwan in the sense of striving, with great success, through international exhibitions, to promote the early artists on the international stage; having bought, curated and sold constantly for the last 42 years, Guthrie’s Collection is unparalleled not just in size and quality, but more importantly in its historic span, containing some of the finest pieces from the ‘first generation’.  In addition, having lived alongside these artists throughout the period, there is an authenticity in the Guthrie collection that is often lacking in other more recent collections, since international status has lead to forgeries, and only protracted first hand experience, or an expert eye can guard against this.  Historic works of art, with Provenance and Integrity from the first and early second generation is what the Guthrie Collection is offering for sale.  Sales will also be linked to the restoration in Zimbabwe of a heritage collection at the Chapungu Sculpture Park, to record for posterity the birth of this remarkable movement.  Corporations, museums and collectors who wish to find out more can e-mail Roy at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Legacy For Zimbabwe

What is stone sculpture if not an opportunity to manifest our most potent impulses in a timeless medium?  So it was with the ‘Great Excitement’, that a creative flowering in the hearts of several artistic men, allowed a tradition to take shape in stone.  The legends and beliefs of the Shona Culture poured out in these works of art, and the results have captured in perpetuity some of the most evocative and universal images of the human imagination. The ever present spirit; the protection of the ancestors; the communion of the animal kingdom: life breathed into inanimate stone, not by imposing a form, but quietly and lovingly releasing the one already there.

This remarkable artistic happening, this profound awakening, occurring in its purest form with the first generation, deserves to be recorded for posterity.  How important then that the Guthrie Collection has as its stated aim, to preserve as a legacy some of the principle examples of this movement.  Roy Guthrie, after a lifetime devoted to the promotion of Shona Sculpture and Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture on the international stage, has decided to establish a lasting memorial to this astonishing artistic movement. 

Integrity

As the international status of the exceptional artists became established during the last 30 years of the 20th Century, driven by economic hardship and necessity, a most unfortunate tendency towards forgery has developed, particularly in recent years and following the deaths of some of the masters.

In difficult times for financial gain talented artists sometimes copy the works of masters.  McEwan would have been saddened by this, not on account of any ill gotten gains, but in the abuse of the artist's own creative potential, in allowing himself to fall so far from the true calling of the artist – namely to fall from creativity to repetition.  For McEwan, it was this that defined the artist:  the act of original creation, allowing the invisible impulse to be made manifest, to reflect emotion and spirit in physical form; rather than the mechanical and stillborn reproduction of someone else’s idea.

There is one certain way to avoid forgery, if the artist is still alive, and that is to gain their personal verification of the authenticity of the piece.  Roy Guthrie will of course facilitate this verification for any piece of art you buy from him; but he is also able to facilitate this in relation to any that you may consider buying elsewhere.  For those artists, particularly from the first generation, who have passed on, it requires decades of experience living and working alongside the artists during their life, and an expert eye, to detect the better forgeries with immediate certainty.  Roy Guthrie, having fostered the works of all the key artists for more than four decades, can reasonably lay claim to this position of authority, and will happily offer his free experience if you send an image:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  As a collector and art lover, you will recognise and appreciate the difference between master artist and forgery, no matter how skilful the copy may be.

When Frank McEwan left Rhodesia in 1973, the only gallery then supporting the sculptors of Zimbabwe was Roy Guthrie's "The Gallery Shona Sculpture" later to become Chapungu Sculpture Park.  Through major, well documented exhibitions across the globe, Guthrie has endeavoured to continue McEwans work, until the artists themselves received individually the international acclaim they properly deserved.