Judith Mason; South African 1938-2016; A Page From An Engen Bestiary - Ensemble
Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- The Engen Collection
Exhibited :
Literature :
Notes : In The Engen Bestiary, Judith Mason draws on the ancient tradition of the bestiary to create a deeply personal and symbolic suite of nine pencil drawings, of which seven feature on this sale (lots 61, 62, 63, 65, 79, 80 and 81). Commissioned for the Engen collection, this unique body of work pairs animal and human imagery in poetic, but unsettling ways. Each page features a singular figure: a ram, a pangolin, a caracal, a giraffe, a monkey and a snake, rendered with exquisite precision and a quiet psychological charge. A bestiary, historically, is a medieval compendium of animals, real, mythical, or imagined, each accompanied by allegorical interpretations and moral lessons. These illuminated manuscripts were not simply zoological records; they were vehicles for storytelling, teaching and spiritual reflection. In Mason's hands, this tradition is reimagined for a contemporary context. Several works in the Engen Bestiary blur the line between species and self: a raptor dissolves into a human head, a snake coils protectively or menacingly around a figure and a caged bird forms the torso of a person. These hybrid forms suggest themes of entrapment, metamorphosis and the tension between instinct and consciousness. Mason's pencil marks are delicate yet deliberate, her symbolism layered and elusive. In this bestiary, animals are not just observed -they are absorbed, internalised and made to speak to the complexities of the human condition. The result is a lyrical yet haunting meditation on identity, wildness and the body as both vessel and cage. Judith Mason, born Judith Seelander Menge in 1938, was a South African artist who worked in oil, pencil, printmaking and mixed media. In 1960, she was awarded a BA Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her oeuvre spans various art mediums - from printmaking to drawings to mixed media to oil paintings. She drew inspiration for her artworks from sources like politics, history, poetry and mythology and imbued them with richly symbolic imagery. Mason's first solo exhibition was held at Gallery 101 in Johannesburg in 1964. In 1966, she was chosen as one of the artists to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale and was included in the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1971 and Art Basel, Miami in 2009. Throughout her career she taught art at the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art and at the Istituto Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, Italy. As a testament to her enduring legacy, her works are held in many important local and international collections such as the South African National Gallery, the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and The Bodleian Library in Oxford.
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