‘The Soul of My Sculptures’ - A Contemplative Analysis of the Work of Naftal Mageto Momanyi
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Date
2020
Authors
Wango, Kamau
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
East African Nature and Science Organization
Abstract
Despite the significant resurgence of expressive creativity through works of art
in various disciplines particularly painting and sculpture, the underlying
inspiration and subsequent endeavour for self-expression by artists, be it derived
from experiences, observation of events and occurrences, imaginative
compositions or even from the subconscious mind or surrealism, is often not
very well articulated among the artistic audience or general public. This is in
view of the general consensus among creative artists that works of Art are
composed or created to be inherently expressive of something and hence should
be given the opportunity to be seen and appreciated. It has been observed that
often the artistic audience or general public only superficially examine the works
of art in passing without necessarily delving into the expressive essence of the
work itself. Hence the genesis of the expression, thought patterns or the
philosophical foundation that underscore an artist’s inspiration and subsequent
creation of that work is therefore just as often missed. If any work of art is not
accorded adequate exposure and does not receive a fair amount of interrogation
in terms of its creative and expressive substance or in terms of its contribution
to the development of style, technique and application of materials, then that
artwork runs the risk of being redundant. In addition, if this interrogation is not
brought to the attention of the relevant artistic audience or articulated to the
general public through exhibitions, relevant artistic fora, such as seminars,
workshops and conferences, then the work amounts to a missed opportunity of
its original purpose. There has been of course the debate about the nature and
extent of participation by the ‘audience’ including the public and whether this
audience bears the prerequisite qualification to interrogate or critique works of
art including sculptural pieces. This paper does not, however, deal with this particular query. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate that sculptures are not
mere embellishments but are a fundamental tool for commentary about pertinent
societal issues in selected areas of endeavour. They, therefore, epitomize the
artist’s point of view (POV) or opinion that underscores his or her sense of
individual self-expression and hence lends credence to each piece. The paper,
therefore, examines firstly, the origins of African sculptural tradition and the
development of self-expression as a key tenet of form/content appreciation; and
secondly the purposeful derivation of ideas from broad themes as well as the
composition of specific subject matter as an avenue for the sculptor to address
the retinue of societal issues. The paper covers six sculptural pieces seen from
different angles created by Naftal Mageto Momanyi, a prominent Kenyan
sculptor who works mainly using granite, wood and soapstone
Description
Article
Keywords
Creative selfexpression, Subconscious Phenomenon, Interpretive Expression
Citation
Wango, K. (2020). ‘The Soul of my Sculptures’-A Contemplative Analysis of The Work of Naftal Mageto Momanyi. East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 2(1), 116-133.