The Bushman Art of Southern Africa (1979) & The Hunter's Vision - The Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe (1995)

1.) THE BUSHMAN ART OF SOUTHERN AFRICA by Bert Woodhouse.

First edition published in Cape Town by Purnell in 1979.

125pp. Illustrated. Book and jacket in near fine condition.

'Is Bushman art purely conceptual? By no means. It includes some of the finest perceptual art ever produced: keen observation of the eland, the rhebok, the lion, the elephant and man, in every mood and movement.

But perhaps it is the relationship between people and animals that are a unique feature of the art. Men "playing with eland" or hunting elephants by hamstringing them.

The art-lover will admire the elegance of the draughtsmanship, the portrayal of movement and the sophisticated techniques of distortion and foreshortening. The general reader will be fascinated by new views of life in Southern Africa before the beginning of written records. To guide him there are introductory chapters dealing with the Bushmen, past and present.'

'Bert Woodhouse has pursued his hobby of photographing, studying and writing about the art on the rocks of Southern Africa for more than twenty years. The illustrations in this book are a selection from his collection of some 25 000 colour slides.'

2.) THE HUNTER'S VISION - the Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe by Peter Garlake.

First edition published in London by British Museum Press in 1995.

176pp. Illustrated. Book and jacket in fine condition.

'The rock paintings of Zimbabwe are perhaps the least-known artistic treasures of Africa. In their abundance, variety, complexity, accuracy of observation, delicacy of execution and richness of symbolism, they are unsurpassed by any prehistoric art. This book, through detailed comparative analyses of a large number of these paintings, never before studied or illustrated, shows how the subjects were selected, how the paintings were executed, and the conventions that determined their styles and forms. 

The paintings are thousands of years old, and the culture of the Stone Age hunters and foragers who created them was extinguished so long ago that it does not survive even as a distant memory. However, through an understanding of the basic tenets of San societies that have been recorded or still survive in the Kalahari desert and its fringes, the author has reconstructed something of the significance of the paintings to their creators. He places them in the context of the life and beliefs of the society that created them, explores the perceptions and ideas that they represent and interprets something of their symbolism.'