Art and Artists of South Africa by Esmé Berman (1970)
Ex libris Frieda Harmsen

1970 publication, Art and Artists of South Africa by Esmé Berman (published by A.A. Balkema), is widely considered the foundational reference encyclopedia for 20th-century South African art history.

Ex Libris Frieda Harmsen (1932–2012), a prominent South African art historian, author, and senior lecturer in History of Art at the University of South Africa (UNISA). She wrote seminal texts on South African art history, including Looking at South African Art and monographs on major South African artists.

I’m not sure who the artist is of the Bookplate.

For South African art historians like Harmsen, I speculate that she commissioned key printmakers of the era such as Raymond Andrews, Cecil Skotnes, or Walter Battiss.

The page opposite the bookplate shows an inscription in Afrikaans reading "van Moeder, Kers 1970" ("from Mother, Christmas 1970").

210mm x 290mm x 50mm

368 pages.

Dust Jacket in poor condition. Minor wear to the bottom edge.

R3,000