A TRIBUTE - Judith Mason, An inspiration to a multi-generation of artists

 Last week I was shocked from sad news on the passing of the legendary South African artist, Judith Mason. She was one of my art senior mentors and last message from email she sent me during my fourth solo exhibition in September was this: "You've got it. kid! I think the Heroine Heads are just terrific and the Rain Queen especially is magnificent. Sorry I am so seldom in touch. Terribly busy and have been rather ill. I am going to check out your blog site. Congrats on what you are doing. Love, Judy."

Self-Portrait of  the artist

I have known Judith Mason since 2002, when by chance I visited Johannesburg during school holidays. My mom used to work for her daughter, Tamar Mason. That winter of 2002, Judith took me and my twin sister Mamogolo to Joburg Zoo for the first time and that is where I realised her love for animals which I later saw being reflected in most of her works. Another chance encounter with Judith was when I was at the art college when she came for a two-day drawing classes. She remains one of my best delicate pencil drawing artists I have ever met. Few years after college we remained in touch and she later became my mentor and a friend. She was very generous with her time and expertise in that when I prepared my second solo exhibition in 2014, she was so keen to critic me on the body of work. Judith took her time to give me thoughtful feedback on each work from Voices From The Koppie  - Towards Speculative Realism totaling 38 plates.

BELOW IS THE INTERVIEW I DID WITH HER IN APRIL 2014 JUST AFTER HER SOLO EXHIBITION AT ART ON PAPER GALLERY.

Most of Judith Mason’s work may be viewed as a ‘work in progress’ by many of her audience.  Her work has the kind of narrative and iconographic autobiographical sketches. The unfinished nature of her work doesn’t only invite audience to complete them but to also get the soundless conversations in motion. A weave of line and brush stroke not only make the final art piece but gives a glimpse of subtle portrait of Judith Mason to the outside.

Can you please tell us who is Judith Mason and when did you realise that you have talent and passion for art?

I am a 76 year old South African woman who found that I was able to do artworks at school when maths and science were difficult for me. I have followed my love for pictures and visual things ever since. I am not particularly talented, but recognise talent when I see it. Many of the people I taught at school and at Wits were far more talented than I am, but I have almost evangelical passion for artworks and a hunger to produce them. Being an introverted child I spent a lot of time around books and especially books with pictures and I literally fell in love with Michelangelo's bust of Brutus when I was 10 years old. It still seems to me to be what male beauty and power are all about. I just love artworks of all kinds and to make them seem to me to be an inestimable privilege.

Is there any of your artwork you are most proud of and why?

The work I am happiest with is the Mitochondrial Altarpiece because it enables me to explore something I had no personal knowledge of before 2009 and very little historical knowledge or real interest in the subject. In 2009 my younger daughter had her DNA done at the Wits University and found that my [and her] matri-lineal line was Clan Lara, the African line originating, in our case, with the Pygmies of the Ituri Forest. We established that my great-great-ever so great grandmother was enslaved and brought to Mozambique from where the line interbred with my Afrikaans forebears. This fact, never suspected, as my father's parental line is German, was very exciting to me and my daughters, and makes me feel more identified with Africa than I ever thought possible. The image I created is a meditation on being a mongrel Voortrekker and a Pygmy slave, and the hardship and fortitude shown by so many human beings caught in an utterly disgusting industry. The boat details I discarded from a diagram of a slave ship which transported people from Africa to America a couple of centuries ago.

Eye of The Storm

How do you know when a work is finished?

I sometimes am not sure when a work is finished and I often 'over-cook' a work by adding and adding when the image or idea really does not need it. But sometimes the work tells you to stop. When you look at it, preferably after not seeing it for a day or two, you realize that it cannot do with any more marks without losing its energy. But it is a subtle thing to identify, and I have trouble with it. One must also learn not to condescend to your viewers by over-explaining things. I personally like apparently 'unfinished' images by other people.

What inspires you? What inspired this piece/idea or the entire body of work?

I grew up near the Kruger Park many years ago and the veld was full of animals and birds and I have loved all forms of wild life ever since, and when I became an art student I felt myself drawn to using animals as symbols, or symptoms, of things I felt strongly. I love being part of the animal world and think that human beings have lost the plot by behaving as if they 'own' all creation. I am also innately religious although I am a non-believer. The way that artists throughout history have tried to describe the mystery of life and belief absolutely fascinates me. To create works of art that are 'holy ground' without picturing specific godheads is something I try, unsuccessfully, to do. I also am very interested in politics and have been  a[rather feeble] activist in my time, devoted to the late Robert Sobukwe, and have done some work in which I try to memorialise the struggle, e.g. in Constitutional Court collection]. This show draws from the found-object figures which stand in the middle of the gallery space. I used aspects of these to draw a sort of an autobiography which tries to come to grips with what I feel about animals, being an artist, being old, being religious.

What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?

A very interesting question! I could say pencils, space or brushes. But the essential thing is for me to have music to listen to. I am a classical music junkie, but usually start my working day with a little bit of ancient Rock'n'Roll like Little Richard, to get the blood flowing, and if I am feeling especially anxious Johnny Cash calms me down. When things are going well I listen to Beethoven and Handel etc. I cannot settle in my studio unless there is sound. It is like a drug.

Is there an element of art you enjoy working with most? Why?

Not really. I love all art materials except computer art, videos etc. Pencils, paint and good paper have a lovely voluptuous quality and their smell, and the smell of good turpentine makes me feel safe and exhilarated rather like good cooking smells in the kitchen! Painting with oils and pencil drawing I enjoy equally because they each have a special voice and one need both to communicate.

How did you start making art and why do you make art?

I started drawing from when I was very small especially when I did not have much else to do. Gradually I found that art helped me to make sense of things and to express anger, fear, etc. which was not allowed verbal expression in my family. At high school I became fascinated by art history and realised that I grasped things better through images. I was weak at Maths and Latin so had to do art for matric. If I had been better at other subjects I would probably have been prevented from studying art at university. I presumed that I would teach art for a living but became a full time artist when I was 37 as I did not enjoy teaching.

UNTITLED (Blue Dress) Triptych - Constitutional Court Art Collection

What is your take on the current state of the arts in South Africa since the advent of democracy?

I think South African art post-apartheid is in a good place. Compared to the work one sees from other countries at art fairs. It stands up well and there is a real content in much of the work whereas sometimes one feels that the US and some other places are just playing to the galleries of the excessively rich who want to buy the label rather than the content of the work. A lot of South African art goes to social and political commentary which is a good thing but can become a bit self-indulgent. Especially as a country we do not put much store by art in the first place. It is a niche pursuit. We have some absolutely first rate artists, like Diane Victor and Colbert Mashile who are amongst the best anywhere.

Do you work alone or do you collaborate in your work?

No, I work on my own except when I do the occasional print with Mark Attwood and Leshoka Legate at the Artists press or when I design tapestries with Marguerite Stephens. When I work with other people I become too deferential and this spoils the work.

Could you tell us about the production that you will be working on when you turn to the next chapter of your art and life?

I am not sure yet what my next work will be. I have started various pieces but I like the way that work starts telling the artist what to do. I would love to do something about the Himalayas which I love and would like to describe without using the clichés of mountain painting but I don’t know. I have to watch this space!

 You mentioned a devotion to Robert Sobukwe, have you ever met him in person? What actually strikes you of this great leader?

I did meet the great Robert Sobukwe when I first started working at Wits University in about 1962, and I had seen him on campus when I was a student. He was probably the most impressive person I have ever met, [with the late Chief Justice, Arthur Chaskalson]. Sobukwe was kind, knowledgeable, and humorous and filled with a vision for the real South Africa. When he went to jail I was part of a group that sent music and reading materials to Robben Island for him where he was jailed in isolation under the Sobukwe Clause. I wish I had known him well. I doubt if I was even a name to him. I have a painting of him on my study wall and every day I greet him with respect.

Are there people in your life who actually inspired you to pursue your own work?

Actually most people did their level best to stop me! I wasn't very gifted and my early work was a mess. I am not talented but I am obsessed and being obsessed takes a long time to bear fruit. Parents, teachers, lecturers were all pretty negative,  except for a woman, Mrs Strey, at Pretoria Girls High in the 1950's who saw how deeply art mattered to me. This all helped me to become a careful and considerate critic, as I learned from the inside how sore one's soul is when somebody stomps on it.
 

UNTITLED (BLUE DRESS) Triptych - Constitutional Court Collection

At Constitution Hill, you have your work 'Blue Dress' as a permanent collection of the Con. Court, can you tell us a bit about what inspired the work please?

The Constitutional Court work's proper title is The Man Who Sang and the Woman Who Kept Silent. It commemorates two particular struggle heroes, Phila Ndwandwe who was tortured and shot to death in Natal and Harald Sefola, who was electrocuted outside Witbank with two of his comrades. Phila refused to divulge any information during her captivity, and clothed her nakedness in a blue plastic bag. Harald asked for a permission to sing "Nkosi" as he faced his end before his execution. The courage of these two people simply staggers me and I tried to commemorate them in various images. Judge Albie Sachs asked me to combine two of the images into the bigger one at the Court. I first made the dress out of found plastic bags and wrote the words on it and then decided to paint it.

 
 

The Man Who Sang and the Woman Who Kept Silent. 

What do you think the future of South African Art will be and who is your favorite South African artist and why?

I have no idea what the future holds. I hope art education will reach deep into all our schools and uncover some phenomenal young people who do work none of us can imagine. I hope art viewing and collecting will break out of the rich mainly white milieu where it is stuck in with places like Arts on Main in the so-called townships. I hope we don't go the current US and generally Western route of art 'rock stars' with frivolous work and obscene prices. Are you listening, Jeff Coons! I admire an abundance of local art, and a great many artists. I tend to fall in love with particular works rather than names, but Diane Victor, Norman Catherine and the fascinating new kid on the block Fred Clarke do it for me. But I am out of touch with a lot of current work and I am probably limited in my appetite by my lack of knowledge. This suits me. I chase the images in my head and find art fairs distracting. It is too much visual noise for me to handle.

Has your work been critiqued abroad as a contemporary metaphor for this country?

Not to my knowledge except for various books dealing with liberation politics which refer to the Constitutional Court work mostly from Holland, the U.S and Scandinavia where the text deals with the work as an illustration to the political or feminist arguments of the writer.

What do you think the social responsibility of the artist is? 

I would say that the social responsibility of the artist is much the same as it is for everybody else. Try to be a good citizen, and use the capacities you have to contribute to the society you live in.  It was fashionable for a time for critics and art writers to imply that work had to be overtly political, or gender questioning or whatever in order to be taken seriously. This has always seemed to me as absurd as expecting all writers to be political commentators, when some are lyric poets, some are novelists, some write whodunits. Visual artists are as varied in nature as writers are, and musicians. After all, we don't expect Satchmo to play Beethoven. Artists must follow their noses, and do what they are innately driven to do, and this may well lead him/her to do political, or green-aware or feminist work when inspired to do so, but artists are rounded human beings and not simply propagandists for a religion or a movement etc.  Of course, if an artist feels strongly that he should do an artwork that has political implications and self-censors him because he is afraid, that is a comment on his quality as a human being. Anyway, most art works preach to the converted. Being aware of the limited power of art to change anything, I have donated work to worthy causes who were fund raising, and make a nuisance of myself writing letters and protesting when I am, as a citizen, angry about something. Artists are not exonerated from participation in the public square. WE GOTTA GO OUT THERE AND KICK ASS!

What advise can you give to young artists who are just starting out?

First gets real. Make art because you want to make it. Don't do it in order to accomplish a wish for a materially good living or because you want to be famous. If you have good PR skills you may get somewhere, but most artists don't. You will need an income, but be careful that the day job you have does not tire out your creative mind. Teaching, and working in a design studio may do this. Being an artist is a choice you make about yourself, so try to resist the temptation of expecting people to owe you something. Artists are not special. Being a domestic worker or a road worker is much harder. If you want to be a free-lance artist get a bit of education in how to run a business before you go solo. Work every day if you possibly can. Hand-eye co-ordination is a matter of practice, in painting, tennis or playing the piano, and it does not just happen. Love it for its own sake, as you would a lover.

This interview was conducted between April and May 2014 by Khehla Chepape Makgato, through email correspondence with the artist.

Khehla Chepape Makgato is a Johannesburg-based independent artist and arts writer, regularly contributing articles to ART AFRICA and The Journalist. He works at Assemblage Studios and is the founder of Samanthole Creative Projects & Workshop, a community-based art organisation focusing on arts and literacy youth programmes. Chepape is the ImpACT Award WINNER for Visual Arts 2016 from the Arts and Culture Trust of South Africa and MAPUNGUBWE VISUAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2016.