Schmidt on Art

The book was conceived by Casper Schmidt, owner of Ombondi Editions (in the 1980’s) who asked Judith Mason, one of our greatest South African artists, to illustrate a number of poems from Dante’s Divine Comedy. She illustrated the poems from The Inferno and Purgatorio in typically impeccable Mason style of drawing by way of 69 offset lithographs, some in colour.

 

The books were printed in a limited edition of 100 by Bruce Attwood at the Broederstroom Press and then (the unbound books) shipped to New York where Casper lived and worked as a psychiatrist and artist.

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Casper ran a gallery, Ombondi Gallery, in New York. At the time of Casper’s death in 1993, half of the books were stored in the gallery and those books were lost when the owners closed the gallery down and sent the books to the local dump. The other half of the books were stored in his apartment. With the help of one of Casper’s friends, Joe Pacheco, the remaining unbound books were imported back to South Africa by Casper’s brother, Wilhelm.  The books are bound by Furi Fine Art Binders in Pretoria. Each book is bound in leather and is stored in a slipcase. The books measure 470 mm x 360 mm and weigh 5 kg each. Books are sold bound or unbound.

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Please contact us for more information.

Bound books : R24,000

Unbound books : R 16,000