KEITH ALEXANDER - The Artist in Retrospect

First edition large format hardcover with dust jacket by David Robbins, published by Jonathan Ball, 2000. 236 pages, illustrated throughout.

Very good copy of an increasingly scarce book cataloging the work of a quiet, diffident and unassuming man who created a substantial number of exquisite paintings, with rare exceptions African-themed. His untimely death at 52 robbed the world of great art. Keith Alexander was a prolific painter, and all his work was interesting, special and different. He used a rare technique of combining clear, almost photographic, realism with surreal images or effects. Sometimes he played tricks with perspective, more often he introduced features which are bizarrely out of place in his works and yet could belong. His major theme, inspired by what he saw in the Namib, was the impermanence of man's work in the face of a relentless nature, and this theme is evident in many of his paintings. Those lucky enough to have visited the Namib desert will appreciate his astonishing skill in capturing light, heat and atmosphere. 

Tracked postage is R90.00.