Lazarus Takawira was born in 1952, in Nyanga. He gained sculptural skills passed down through the family from his mother, and brothers John and Bernard Takawira. After resigning from the police force, he sculpted professionally and became recognised as a leading Shona sculptor (inspired by the sculptural workshop movement of Frank McEwen, first Director of The National Gallery of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where his brothers developed their skills). Themes explored by Lazarus in Springstone Serpentine and other local stone, include personal cultural experiences; the strength of women, and symbolic abstract forms, such as birds.¹
