Missions and modern art in southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe)

This dissertation examines the experiences of four southern African missionary art programs. The four, Grace Dieu and Rorke's Drift in South Africa, and Cyrene and Serima in Rhodesia (as well as their offshoots) pioneered art education for Africans in the region. Art emerging from these institutions laid the stylistic and thematic foundations for modern black art in southern Africa.; The dissertation shows how new forms of art developed at each station. Typically, a maverick white missionary would start a school and include art in the curriculum. This art training was always restricted to the few techniques that the mission founder knew. Because these founders could limit their students' exposure to other art forms, highly distinctive school styles developed. The founders were quick to identify talented youngsters willing to work within the prescribed style, and these favorites became the first professional black artists. Hired to take on the teaching chores, they also did commission work. With these favorites in place the founders were able to exhibit, promote, and sell their work to the outside world. Once a mission's work attracted attention, its artists could no longer remain sheltered. Inevitably, some rebelled and began experimenting with new techniques and themes.; This pattern resulted in the traditions of bas relief woodcarving and realistic sculpture at Grace Dieu; Arts & Crafts movement-based painting and sculpture at Cyrene; stylized, architectural woodcarving at Serima; and weaving and linoprinting at Rorke's Drift. The dissertation shows how these styles diffused across southern Africa, affecting woodcarving, stone sculpture, painting, and screenprinting.; Finally, the dissertation argues that the missions were dominated by their founders' personalities and operated in a manner similar to the colonial-era workshops of the Atelier d'Art (“The Hangar”) in Congo, Poto-Poto in French Congo, Polly Street Art Centre in South Africa, the National Gallery Workshop School in Rhodesia, and the Oshogbo Mbari Mbayo Center art workshop in Nigeria. These workshops have been portrayed as the originators of modern African art. Mission art, then, should not continue to be segregated from other forms of modern African art.