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Showbiz Reporter

The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) has mourned the death of National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) legend, Helen Lieros who was one of Zimbabwe’s finest painters belonging to a special group of the most enthusiastic teachers of art the nation has ever seen.

In a statement, NACZ director Nicholas Moyo said Helen was a visual artist par excellence, with several artworks on the permanent collection at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

“Her death is particularly sad for the sector coming so soon after her recognition by the government as one of the Living Legends of the Cultural and Creative Industries in Zimbabwe,” Moyo said.

Born in 1940 in Gweru, Helen, together with her husband Roy Guthrie, established Gallery Delta which has been very instrumental in nurturing a lot of young visual artists by giving them space to flaunt their respective aesthetic talents.

With an incredible knack for identifying and nurturing artistic talent, Helen regularly imparted her invaluable visual arts skills to many artists, assisting them to blossom into top-notch creatives.

“With the death of Helen, Zimbabwe has lost an exceptionally talented practitioner and arts administrator who contributed to the growth and development of the visual arts by putting the sector on the world’s artistic map. May her soul Rest In Peace.”