Judith Mason

Judith Mason and squirrel monkey October 1980

Judith Mason (born Judith Seelander Menge, 10 October 1938) is a South African artist who has created oil paintings, graphics, mixed media and tapestries, rich in symbolism and mythology, and displaying a rare technical virtuosity.

Education and career

Judith Mason was born in in Pretoria; she matriculated at the Pretoria High School for Girls in 1956. In 1960, she was awarded a BA Degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. She taught painting at the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Pretoria, the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, Italy from 1989–91 and acted as external examiner for under-graduate and post-graduate degrees at Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Natal, Stellenbosch and Cape Town Universities. Several of Mason's works deal with the atrocities uncovered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.^[1]

Self-portrait at 90

Philosophy

Judith Mason is politically aware and motivated by a strong social conscience. Her work is informed by people, creatures, events and sometimes works of poetry, that have touched or deeply disturbed her. Her images run the gamut from expressionist through representational, humorous and starkly symbolic. The history, mythology and ritual of Christianity and the eastern religions provide a fertile fund of inspiration for her work. Mason feels that formalised theology has destroyed the spiritually-nourishing mythological character of primitive religion.

"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". Judith Mason 2004

"Hyaenas like artists, are scavengers prowling on the edge of society. I love hyaenas because of their other-worldly whooping, their ungainliness and their "bad hair" (I share the latter two characteristics). I also regard the animal as a very apt image of the 'id' in opposition to the ego and the super-ego, the monkey on my back. In the three lithographs I have depicted The Muse by Day as a Hyaena in guineafowl's clothing, the spots as disguise or drag to celebrate the gift of mimicry. In the Muse by Night I have concentrated on the animal as far-seeing, seerlike with the coat of spots as shaman's eyes. In Muse Amused I have tried to celebrate a generally despised animal having an existential guffaw." Judith Mason 2006

Exhibitions

She has exhibited frequently in South Africa, with works in all the major South African art collections as well as in private and public collections in Europe and the United States. She has held exhibitions in Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, West Germany, Switzerland and the USA.

Her public commissions have included large tapestries in collaboration with Marguerite Stephens and recently, stained-glass window designs for the Great Park Synagogue in Johannesburg. Her first solo exhibition was at Gallery 101, Johannesburg, in 1964 after winning second prize in the U.A.T competition in 1963. Since then she has exhibited regularly in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and George Goodman Gallery, Chelsea Gallery, Association of Arts Pretoria, Association of Arts Cape Town, Hout Street Gallery, Strydom Gallery, Dorp Street Gallery, Art on Paper, Karen Mackerron Gallery, as well as lithographs, oil paintings and drawings at Ombondi Gallery in New York in 1990. She represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale, 1966, São Paulo Biennale 1973, Brazil, Valparaiso Biennale 1979, Chile and Houston Arts Festival 1980, USA.

Publications

• A Dante Bestiary (Ombondi Editions, NY, 1990) Printed by Bruce Attwood, The Broederstroom Press.
• Selected Poems by Patrick Cullinan, 1992, Artists' Edition printed by Mark Attwood, The Artists' Press.
• Talking Pictures Essays printed and published by the Broederstroom Press, 1989.
• Mixed media portfolio in collaboration with poet Ted Townsend.

Select Collections in South Africa

Select Collections Abroad

• University of St John, Newfoundland, USA
• The Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK
• Yale University, USA ^[3]

Personal life

Was married to Professor Revil Mason, former head of the Archaeology Department University of the Witwatersrand, with two daughters, Tamar (1966) and Petra (1970).

References

External links

• Official Artist Site