Visit Waterperry Gardens this year and you will understand why, probably the greatest artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, was inspired by and borrowed from African art.

An Englishman, Frank McEwen, went to Paris in the 1920s and befriended Picasso and other great artists, but after the war Frank was disillusioned by what he saw in Paris.

He felt it was trivial and was drawn to Africa.

In Zimbabwe, he met Thomas Mukorobgwa, a former policeman from whom he discovered Shona culture.

Inspired, he nurtured their artists who were often poor men of little education but tremendous talent, using skill and spirituality when they communed with stone.

When Frank McEwan left Rhodesia, in 1973, the only gallery then supporting the sculptors of Zimbabwe was Roy Guthrie’s The Gallery Shona Sculpture, later to become Chapungu Sculpture Park. Difficult times in Zimbabwe led him to keep the flame burning by founding a Chapungu Sculpture Park in Loveland, Colorado.

His collection, some of which he has brought to Waterperry, was assembled over the last four decades and captures the history of this unique artistic happening, with integrity and provenance.

Roy lived alongside the artists who made them and he understands the intense emotion and humanity they contain.

I particularly admired a huge but simple head that, unsurprisingly, reminds me of a Brancusi, for he was another artist inspired by the strong simple lines and abstractions of African art. Bernard Matemera says of his Blind Man: “My chief lost his sight in old age. I tried to capture the loneliness and tragedy of this event.”

Tapfuma Gutsa has developed an international reputation and will be exhibiting at this year’s Venice Biennale.

There are several of his sculptures at Waterperry including The Birth of the Universe — pictured left.

If only I could mention all of the artists, but, in 500 words, that is impossible!

So I urge you to go and see for yourselves, the passionate work of Dominic Benhura, the robust humour of Agnes Nyanhongo and the Philip Pullman-like daemons of Thomas Mukorobgwa.

You can admire them from a distance and caress them close up but do view them from all angles — the profiles are often the most striking and strong. Roy Guthrie sums it up: “It has taken many years for the Western World to acknowledge the great influence of African art on Western art. Now a contemporary form is emerging of world quality and interest.”

A Chapungu exhibition, A Culture in Stone, was mounted in Kew Gardens in 2000.

Waterperry is on our doorstep, so take the opportunity to wander through the gardens and be surprised.

The stunning Kew Catalogue is on sale in the gallery — do browse it to see other work by these outstanding artists.

Fine small works by some of the artists are on sale in Waterperry Gallery, which is developing into an interesting showcase for artists and craftsmen.