Artist Database

Judith Mason's 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, UCT'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 Iziko 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.