Zimbabwe

Tribute to Roy cook

 
<sub>Director of world renowned Matombo Galleries and Sculpture Garden , ( Harare and Victoria Falls ) dedicated sculpture promoter, African art marketer, and Zimbabwean cultural ambassador.

By Martin Chemhere, Harare , mchemhere@yahoo.com</sub>

_{Born 3rd December 1943 and died 4th May 2007 in Harare at the age of 64, Roy Cook worked in his early years, with the late Frank McEwen, the founding promoter and seminal marketer of Zimbabwean stone sculpture. He promoted, among others, leading Zimbabwean stone sculptors such as Albert Mamvura, Claude Nyanhongo, Moses Masaya, Damian Manhuhwa, Fanizani Akuda, Henry Munyaradzi, Nesbert Mukomberanwa, Norbert Shamhuyarira, Shepherd Madzikatire, Sylvester Mubayi, John Takawira, Edward Chiwawa and Edronce Rukodzi.}

_{I learned through the ZBC TV with great disbelief and deep sorrow of the death of one of stone sculpture’s principal promoters. In the post Frank McEwen epoch, Roy Cook stood out as a top gallerist promoting contemporary sculpture with unflinching embrace of what is truly a Zimbabwean art. He died while fighting, in the highly challenging western art markets, to promote a contemporary art form that is uniquely Zimbabwean in its originality. Cook died fighting for the proper representation of Zimbabwean art in its originality and its correct presentation of its creators. His death has robbed not only the Zimbabwean visual arts industry of a dedicated and hardworking cultural ambassador but the African continent has lost one of its own who toiled in putting the story of the continent’s cultures across to the international communities. At a time, during the early 80s when few Zimbabweans knew little of the pressing need to break through into the international art markets on the back of the beauty and cultural importance of Zimbabwe’s unique sculpture forms, he had begun the crusade to create a cultural institution that would become a major player in the international devolution of Zimbabwean art.}

_{I am quite convinced that in his quiet sleep now, wherever his spirit is, he comfortably rests in peace knowing that he triumphed in a colossal manner, in contributing to the popularity and fame of Zimbabwean visual art. I knew Roy Cook from way back 1989, when the Matombo Gallery was a small outlet occupying some space at 114 Leopold Takawira Street (Zimre Centre) and witnessed its growth to become an occupier of a much bigger space at its new haven, 49 Airport Road, Hatfield. I knew the stocky man as a peerless cultural benefactor, who loved to nurture, grow, and promote an art movement whose classical standards continue to attract superb critical attention from the world’s leading art critics and commentators.}

_{He died in the middle of a war to advance the cause of Zimbabwean art, such that his gallery, Matombo was once described as “The world’s premier establishment specializing in Shona sculpture”, something which he until his death was piously proud of.}

_{In many respects the Zimbabwean visual arts industry is indebted to his vision and exploits as a cultural marketer of note. This is explained by the fact that in his life time he built an impressive list of admirers of Zimbabwean art such as Sir Richard Attenborough, Denzel Washington, Donald Sutherland, and Danny Glover among other world figures of our time. At home, Cook made sure that the art of Zimbabwe , in particular the sculpture form become a part of the local corporate identity. In this vein, he supplied the sculpture for display at various notable venues such as at the VIP Lounges at Harare and Victoria Falls Airports and at leading hotels like the Sheraton (now Rainbow Towers), the Monomotapa Crown Plaza, the Holiday Inn (Harare) and at the Elephant Hills hotel in Victoria Falls.}

_{Cook was a frontrunner in seriously presenting the unique sculpture of Zimbabwe , taking it to international contemporary art fairs where Matombo Gallery was often the only gallery from Africa accepted as an exhibitor, especially in the 90s.} 

_{His enthusiastic tact saw him venture in new markets with the best of Zimbabwean art, curating some of the most significant sculpture exhibitions in the history of local art. One of these was in the United States where he featured 114 sculptors by 15 of Zimbabwe ’s top artists exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and subsequently at the John Lyman Cultural Centre at Southern Connecticut University. During the US exhibitions, one critic commented that Roy Cook had “brought a collection whose magnitude and creative scope alters how we think about art from Africa ”. The show was also aired on Americas CBS television where it was described as “a benchmark moment for contemporary art in this country”.}

_{Roy Cook was deeply concerned with the preservation and enhancement of the artistic reputation of Zimbabwean sculpture. He was also on record and steadfast about the art form’s merit by originality, prompting him at one time to comment that “…its reputation had been earned by the country’s top artists and thus should not be confused with the work of copyists, craftsmen or curio carvers”. He repeated this contemporary vision in one of his comments made after Matombo Gallery was selected to permanently display their sculptors at the Elephant Hills Hotel: “We are not a tourist venue or souvenir shop, but we knew that many visitors to Zimbabwe are interested in what is genuinely an artistic expression of Zimbabwe ’s culture”. He also despised the peddling of curios and copies as being genuine and authentic art by top artists, mainly in overseas venues.}

_{Through his innumerable international visual art shows, Zimbabwe sustained positive publicity which positioned the art promoter along with the country’s prime cultural emissaries. Mainly his life was spent developing the best of Zimbabwe ’s talents in the sculpture field with a view to draw the much needed concentration to the individuality, creativity and talent of the truly artistically minded. He also fought very hard to recount some of the realities that confronted those who sought to expose contemporary art from Africa to a western audience. In the early days of the sculpture movement, he was one of the few who understood the significance of local sculpture’s international quest at a time when the greater part of the world had elementary knowledge of the artistic style and the geological position of the country it came from.}

_{As he rests, his cultural gallantry still reverberates in the corners and corridors of international art markets, collector’s homes, tertiary institutions, where it is “breaking through the barriers of acquired western learning which often teaches that the only authentic African art is the tribal, so called “primitive” art”. It suffices to say Roy Cook was a genius in the promotion of Zimbabwean sculpture. Rest in peace warrior of the contemporary sculpture industry.}