Notes

Judith Mason was a contemporary symbolist painter whose resolutely figurative work was informed by the canon of art history. She was also a self-described “agnostic liberal-humanist with a low flinch-threshold”¹ who possessed “religious curiosity”.² The present lot offers a top-down view of an arrangement of nine candleholders with a biomorphic form evocative of the titular divine hands wafting above the arrangement. Mason’s energetic brushwork is especially noticeable in her portrayal of the candles, which include distinctive notes of purple, pink, red, yellow and white. A staple of memento mori paintings, Mason recognised the symbolic potential of candles – she also produced a painting of a single snuffed candle. Mason was deeply engaged by the possibilities of yoking objects in service of symbolic roles. Certainty and mystery are coequal in her work. Mason defined the role of the artist – and viewer – as putting “the noose gently around an idea” so as not to throttle its spirit.³ Sean O’Toole

1. Judith Mason, “Essay on Encountering Dante’s Creatures,” New Contrast, Vol. 20, 1992, 13.
2. Judith Mason, artist statement, 2004: www.artprintsa.com/judith-mason.html
3. Judith Mason, artist statement during walkabout of A Prospect of Icons exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, 2008.