The Directors' Collection – The Kill – Africa
The title of this book may seem off putting, but when this sumptuous leather bound book with gilt titles and vignette is opened, a stunning work is revealed. This edition was published in 1989 and was limited to just 1250 copies. The copy we have in stock at the time of writing is number 1112 and is signed by the publisher John F. Richardson of The Directors' Collection Ltd.
There are 60 specially commissioned, full page colour reproductions of artwork from eighteen leading South African artists with descriptive narrative and photographs facing each one. Each page depicts the life and death dramas played out as a necessary part of survival for all manner of creatures in Africa, from mammals to birds. Each artwork is also signed by the artist.
This is together with a portfolio of plates, each with a limited edition number and the artist’s signature, among them Gordon Vorster, Dylan Lewis, Patricia Vaughan and Richard Smith.
There is also a very apposite forward written 30 years ago by the world renowned artist and conservationist David Shepherd. It is blunt and to the point regarding man's impact on this wonderful and diverse planet.
“The scene at the waterhole was very different from that portrayed in the glossy holiday brochures, a tranquil picture of zebra, giraffe and other animals drinking, at peace, in the heat of an African noon. I know there were 255 zebra because we spent all day counting them. A poacher had poisoned the water.”
There are other equally hard hitting paragraphs but he does go on to say -
“I became a conservationist in that one dramatic moment at that waterhole and I have thought deeply ever since of how our future lies. We have not inherited this still beautiful world from our parents, we have borrowed it for our children, and I pray that we have something worthwhile to hand on to them”
And finally to give us all hope -
“Man in his infinite stupidity has a seemingly limitless capacity to destroy. Man also has, in his infinite wisdom, the ability to repair the damage.”
This book will be of interest to the conservationist, the artist or to the numerous people who have a love of the natural world, especially in Africa.
Contributed by Rosemary
(Published on 30th May 2019 )