Our Art 4 / Ons Kuns 4 by Albert Werth & Frieda Harmsen

Our Art 4 / Ons Kuns 4 (Bilingual Illustrated Survey of South African Art)

A Richly Illustrated Bilingual Survey of Twenty-Five Distinguished South African Artists, Fourth in the Our Art Series

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Our Art 4 / Ons Kuns 4
• Authors: Albert Werth & Frieda Harmsen
• Editor: Riena van Graan
• Publisher: Foundation for Education, Science and Technology (Stigting vir Onderwys, Wetenskap en Tegnologie), Pretoria
• Publication Date: 1993
• ISBN-13: 9780797028326
• ISBN-10: 0797028323
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated card wrappers, perfect bound, with a black spine carrying a small photographic panel.
• Physical Format: Large-format softcover (approximately A4), richly illustrated with colour reproductions of artworks. Bilingual English and Afrikaans text.
• Language: English and Afrikaans

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Wraps: The glossy illustrated collage wrappers are attractive and intact on both front and back. The black spine is intact. There is a slight curve to the lower edge of the front cover. No obvious damage to the corners or edges.
• Interior: The title page and copyright page are clean, with no marks.
• The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)

Synopsis & Historical Value

Our Art 4 / Ons Kuns 4, published in Pretoria in 1993 by the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology, is the fourth volume in the Our Art / Ons Kuns series. It was compiled by Albert Werth and Frieda Harmsen, with Riena van Graan as editor, and is presented in parallel English and Afrikaans.

The volume surveys the work and achievements of twenty-five distinguished South African artists, illustrated in full colour reproductions of their best work. It offers a snapshot of how South African art was understood and presented in the early 1990s.

The book is cited as a reference in art-historical and heritage research, including in documentation of a Pretoria chapel, and has proved its worth as a documentary source. It is a useful reference for collectors and students of South African painting and the visual arts.

Author Profile: Albert Werth and Frieda Harmsen

Albert Werth was the director of the Pretoria Art Museum and is described as its founder and first curator. His 1973 doctoral thesis at the University of Pretoria dealt with primitivism in South African art, and in 1985 he published extracts of the Schutte Commission report on the visual arts.

Frieda Harmsen is a South African art historian who studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Courtauld Institute, lectured at UNISA and edited the department's journal De Arte. Her other works include Looking at South African Art (Van Schaik, 1985) and Maud Sumner: Painter and Poet (Van Schaik, 1992), and she edited Cecil Skotnes (1996).

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