the cyrene album at the central saint martins college of art and design

8/10/2019 The Cyrene Album at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

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The Cyrene Book

Compiled by

Jonathan Zilberg, Ph.D.

Center for African Studies

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

at The Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design


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This 200 page scrap book contains a substantial record of thestudent art created at Cyrene mission in what was then SouthernRhodesia (now Zimbabwe) between 1940 and 1953. It is one ofmany such collections compiled by Canon Paterson (1895-1973)and sent to libraries in the UK and United States.

This particular record is of special significance to the history of theCentral Saint Martins College of Art and Design, formerly the CentralSchool of the Arts and Crafts, as Paterson had studied at from 1920through 1923. Instead of taking up a teaching position at the Centralchose to return to Africa as an Anglican missionary.

Through making a small selection of this fascinating record of mid-20th century African childrens art more accessible through theinternet, this resource brings attention to a little known aspect of the

history of the CSM and Patersons early contribution to thedevelopment of modern African art. A list of references is providedfor those interested in knowing more about the history of Cyrenemission.


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Canon Paterson and the Bishop


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References

African Music Society. Cyrene Exhibition in London: Extracts from the Press.African Music SocietyNewsletter1949 1(2): March:28-30.

Anonymous. Cyrene School of Art.African Music Society Newsletter(1948) 1(1) June:23-24.

Anonymous. Wonderstone Wonders. Sculpture of Samuel Songo. Time (1954) August:58.

Anonymous. Unique African Religious Paintings. Rhodesia Calls (1973) 80, July/August: 19-25.

Cyrene Mission. Visitors Guide.(1994) Bulawayo: Cyrene Mission

Devlieger, P. Representation of Physical Disability in Colonial Zimbabwe: The Cyrene Mission andPitaniko, the Film of Cyrene. Disability and Society (1998): 13(5):709-724.

Ehrenzweig, A. The African Schoolboy Art of Cyrene. The Studio (1954) 148 (738):80-83.

Fosu, K. 20th Cyrene Centre: Benson Dube. Twentieth Century Art of Africa (1986): 49-50. Zaria:Gaskiya.

Jones, W. Ffrangcon. Religious Patronage: Cyrene (1958). Cape Town: South Africa.

Kowo. Kudzai. Cyrene Art: 50 years Back. The Artist (1990) April 1(3):3.

Lombard, S. Cyrene. Jeune Afrique (1951) 5(15): 4-8.

Morton, E. Gron. Ned Paterson and the Cyrene Mission Tradition. In Missions and Modern Art in


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, ySouthern Africa. (2003): 68-110. Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services.

Paterson, E, Canon. The Nature of Bantu Art and Some Suggestions for its Encouragement. Nada

(1942) 19:14-15.

Paterson, E. Canon. Cyrene: Africans in the Making. (1949). Westminster: The Society for thePropagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

Randles, E. Mission Art in Zimbabwe in Legacies of Stone: Zimbabwe Past and Present, ed. G.

Bourgois, vol. 2:71-83, 192. Tervuren: Royal Museum of Central Africa.

Rankin, E. and E. Miles. The role of the missions in art education in South Africa.Africa Insight(1992) 22(1):34-48.

Vera, Yvonne. Two Schools in Zimbabwe. InAnthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century, ed. F.

Ngone, New York: Distributed Art Publishers.

Walker, D. A. C. Paterson of Cyrene (1985) Gweru: Mambo Press.

Wall, B. Canon Paterson of Cyrene.Arts Zimbabwe (1981) 2:27-38.

Ranger, T. O. Making Zimbabwean Landscapes: Painters, Projectors and Priests. Paideuma (1997)43:59-73.

Zilberg, J. Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture and the British Arts and Craft Movement: An Experiment inthe Spirit of Ruskin and Morris in Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture: The Invention of a ShonaTradition (1996):26-79. Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services.


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Institutional Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

for giving permission to make these images available on the world

wide web for educational purposes. I am particularly grateful to AnnaBuruma, the archivist there who was able to locate the scrap book

by pure chance having begun the search for Cyreniania in Libertys

of London in 2005.

Finally, I am grateful for a visiting research fellowship at the

Smithsonians National Museum of African Art in 2008 and the

opportunity for a visiting research residency at the Department of

Transtechnology at the University of Plymouth in 2009, both

appointments having enabled the completion of this component of

The Cyrene project.

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