Judith MASON (b. 1938)

BIOGRAPHY

Judith Mason was a painter and graphic artist of symbolic and mythological landscapes, figures and portraits. She worked in a variety of media – primarily oils and pencil, incorporating various graphic media and found objects into her work, and also made a number of artists’ books.

Mason was born in Pretoria, in 1938. She matriculated at the Pretoria High School for Girls in 1956. She attended the University of Witwatersrand from 1957 and obtained a BA Degree in Fine Art in 1960.

Mason drew and painted in reaction to her world: political events, books that she read, snippets of history or poetry which caught her eye, or the experiences of particular people or animals. Or, as she put in 2004: ‘I paint in order to make sense of my life, to manipulate various chaotic fragments of information and impulse into some sort of order, through which I can glimpse a hint of meaning. I am an agnostic humanist possessed of religious curiosity who regards making artworks as akin to alchemy. To use inert matter on an inert surface to convey real energy and presence seems to me a magical and privileged way of living out my days.’

She was chosen to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 1966 and took part in various Valparaiso and Sao Paolo Biennales in the 1970s. She exhibited frequently in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and George at various galleries such as the Goodman Gallery, Chelsea Gallery, Association of Arts Pretoria, Association of Arts Cape Town, Hout Street Gallery, Strydom Gallery, Dorp Street Gallery, Art on Paper, and Karen MacKerron Gallery. She also held exhibitions in Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, West Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

She taught painting at the University of the Witwatersrand (1963 – 78), the University of Pretoria, the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, Scuola Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy (1989 – 91) and acted as external examiner for under-graduate and post-graduate degrees at Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Natal, Stellenbosch and Cape Town Universities. During this time, her work became part of the National South African School and University curricula.

Her work is represented in South African national art collections and museums and, internationally, in private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Yale University, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC and The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Public commissions include tapestries in collaboration with Margaret Stephens and stained–glass window designs for the Great Park Synagogue in Johannesburg.

Mason’s most well-known public commission is The Man Who Sang and the Woman Who Kept Silent aka The Blue Dress (1998) at The Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, South Africa. Justice Albie Sachs has described this work as being ‘one of the great pieces of art in the world of the late 20th century’.

SOURCES
‘Judith Mason,’ The Artists’ Press, https://www.artprintsa.com/judith-mason.html.
‘Judith Mason,’ art.co.za, https://www.art.co.za/judithmason/about.php.