BY LIFE & STYLE REPORTER
THE arts fraternity has been plunged into mourning after the death of renowned sculptor Edronce Rukodzi in Guruve, Mashonaland Central province.
Sources in the creative industry privy to the developments confirmed his death and indications are he succumbed to COVID-19 related complications.
He was 69.
His work forms part of the permanent collection displayed at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport alongside works by great artists like Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Dominic Benhura and Agnes Nyanhongo.
According to www.guruve.com, Rukodzi “joined the Tengenenge sculpture community in 1974 at the age of 20. At Tengenenge he worked with his uncle Henry Munyaradzi who was already an established artist there.”
By the late 1970s, the Rhodesian war of independence caused so much disruption that Rukodzi moved to Chitungwiza.
In 1984, He gave up his job as a trades’ union official to become a full-time sculptor. His first exhibition was held at the Standard Chartered Gallery in Harare in 1985, and everything sold on the first day.
