The Dream of Rosita by Marc Glaser

Signed limited edition, no. 98 of 200.
Because Glaser hand-printed, bound, and distributed these almost exclusively within a tiny circle of friends and immediate acquaintances, very few of these original 200 copies ever made it into public circulation or research libraries before his death.

Marc (Marcus) Glaser (1936–2007), was an incredibly prolific but intentionally reclusive artist.
Glaser studied fine art at Wits and the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town during the 1950s and 60s, a period dominated by High Modernism. However, as the South African art world shifted heavily toward political "protest art" or commercial modern idioms, Glaser chose a completely different path: total isolation.

He retreated into his home studio in Johannesburg, where he lived an extremely private life. There, on a small manual press, he produced an enormous, secret archive:
Close to 2,000 etchings, lithographs, and monotypes.
At least 28 self-published books of plays, poems, and short stories—all written, illustrated, and hand-printed by him in tiny, numbered editions.

An "Anachronistic" Nightmare

The sketchy, ink-drawn vignette on this title page perfectly captures Glaser's distinct, unsettling style. While his contemporaries were reflecting the turbulent realities of Apartheid South Africa, Glaser’s mind was anchored in the European surrealist and symbolist movements.

His work shows an intense obsession with the Belgian artist James Ensor and Germany’s Max Ernst. His illustrations are frequently described as a blend of whimsical, old-world fairytales and highly personal, psychological nightmares.

When Glaser died in 2007, he was virtually a ghost in South African art history, receiving only a single line of mention in Esmé Berman’s seminal Art and Artists of South Africa from 1969.

By a strange stroke of luck and coincidence, his hidden life's work came into the possession of South African academic, writer, and publisher Bronwyn Law-Viljoen. This collection of boxes was stored in her home for years and ultimately inspired her award-winning debut novel, The Printmaker (2016), where the reclusive protagonist March Halberg is closely modeled on Glaser. In 2012, Gallery AOP in Johannesburg ran a major retrospective exhibition of his work, titled exactly after this book: The Dream of Rosita.

Sold together with an exhibition catalogue.
Boards water stained and worn. Prelims slightly foxed. The rest of the book is in good condition.

255mm x 333mm

R1,500