A Monograph by Ruth Hartley

It is done. Published this year 2024 and delivered to Zambia where Lechwe Art Gallery has generously and efficiently distributed copies to those artists and creative people connected with the Mpapa Gallery or wishing to research a part of the history of Zambian art. We have been sending out PDF copies to people who are requested copies but cannot get a hard copy. The Mpapa Gallery Monograph is also available on Kindle from Amazon. All the past directors have contributed to the Monograph from Joan (Pilcher) Jenkin who started Mpapa with Heather Montgomerie, to Patrick Mweemba Siabokoma, Cynthia Zukas and myself, Ruth (Bush) Hartley who managed it until it closed.

The Mpapa Gallery

The Mpapa Gallery was begun by people who were passionate about art and positive about the newly independent country of Zambia. So too, were all the people who connected with the gallery as artists, art enthusiasts, art collectors, art advisors, funders and supporters, workers, managers, visitors and friends. Art galleries almost never make any money so they are usually run as charities with endowments. Above all, it is the creative people and artists who make it possible. All forms of the creative arts are the life-blood of every nation.

A personal account of the history of Mpapa Gallery

Mpapa Gallery closed down in 1996 and that is 28 years ago – more than a whole generation has grown up since then and a great deal of the history of that time in Zambia is lost and forgotten in part because it was a pre-digital era but also because Zambia like so many African nations suffered the cataclysm of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 1996 I suffered the personal tragedy of a forced rupture from Zambia, the place that was home to me and my heart and work but I’ve never stopped being deeply engaged with art and with Zambia and Zambian artists since. That can be clearly seen from the blogs I have written and also from the art I’ve made and the personal contacts I’ve kept up. When I left Mpapa Gallery, I left behind all the information to do with the gallery but fortunately I also copied some of what I thought was most relevant and I kept it as safe as possible. Just as well as it turned out because my personal art and other information was deliberately trashed when I left Zambia and so writing this Monograph has required effort and dedication from me. I am glad and happy that I’ve been able to complete it.

People who helped make the Monograph possible

I’m grateful to everyone I mentioned by name or alluded to to above. I’m extremely grateful to my husband and friend John Corley who has given me every encouragement and made things happen that I could not have managed – thank you John! I’m also grateful to Joel Bossieux of Alize Photographics. Joel has made art catalogues for my art exhibitions and flyers for my books and novels. He always goes beyond what he should do to run an economic business and yet he continues to smile at me. He is very kind and a digital whizz. It was Joel who somehow took the Monograph, squeezed and shaped it into a book that could be published and found a publisher who could deliver it in time for Cynthia Zukas to take it back to Zambia and with the help of Kulamitra Zukas get it distributed at the Lechwe Gallery.

The Tin Heart Gold Mine

It is entirely appropriate to plug my book The Tin Heart Gold Mine here. Picasso said that “art is not made for decoration. It is an instrument of war for attack and defence against the enemy.” I find that true though art does not kill and maim and enslave as European wars did to Africa. My book, set in a fictional country like Zambia, is about those European wars, about the necessity of wildlife and the corruption of gemstones, about the importance of love and the battle to make art that changes perceptions.

My Body of Art – Corpus

I always thought that the personal is political and my personal art is political. It’s not a choice but a fact of life. I learned more about making art from the time I spent with artists in Zambia and at Mpapa Gallery than I ever learned at art schools but I did have inspiring teachers who made me realise that nobody teaches another person how to be creative – all you can do is open doors in hearts and minds and encourage curiosity, critical thinking and problem solving.

Please contact me here for information about the Mpapa Gallery Monograph or visit the Lechwe Gallery in Lusaka Zambia. Copies are available on Amazon Kindle or on PDF by request.