Morning Exercise (C-3)

About the Item: Colleen Madamombe is known for her portrayal of feminine experience from girlhood to old age including representations of motherhood, pregnancy, childbirth, and tribal matriarchy. Her works have been interpreted as a platform for feminist expression. Her interest lay not only in the emotional and spiritual side of women’s lives, but also in the advancement of women in general. Madamombe had strong feelings about the role of women in Zimbabwean society. She felt that women were losing their positions of traditional respect. She saw difficulties for women entering the arts because of lack of self-confidence but viewed “women’s work”— making pots and other things for the home--as inherently artistic.

The artist was also known for formal innovations such as expressing movement. In "Morning Exercise," Madamombe’s exercising woman, with her raised left arm and lowered right arm sloping down her pitched-forward body, expresses the dynamism of motion in three dimensions. The sculptor also chisels rough stone to depict different types of fabric, as in "Morning Exercise." The artist pays attention to the details of femininity.

She said: “I am inspired by the activity of women and I work hard to show this in my sculpture. In recent pieces I have used natural areas of the stone with rough workings to emphasize this movement [in which] the texture follows the rhythms of the body. This contrasts with the more finished areas of the face and hands.”

Madamombe’s female figures have become symbols of womanhood in Zimbabwe and were adopted by the Zimbabwean International Film Festival as the trophy likeness for award-winning women.

Artwork Size: 9" x 9" x 6"