INLSA

PROUD: Artist Paul du Toit talks about his collaboration with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Picture: Candice Chaplin

WENDYL MARTIN

IT MAY seem to be an unlikely collaboration, but Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and acclaimed SA artist Paul du Toit are making it work, turning out a one-of-a-kind art book that will go under the hammer to raise funds for charity in New York later this month.

The 18-page book features five handwritten quotes by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, displayed alongside woodcut prints by Du Toit.

It is to be auctioned at The Lunchbox Fund Bookfair, among other handmade books created by personalities as diverse as Salman Rushdie with artist Francesco Clemente, Sting, Sir Ben Kingsley, photographer Bob Gruen and Yoko Ono, Hugh Masekela, Tony Bennet and Deepak Chopra.

The Lunchbox Fund, founded by New York-based SA model Topaz Page-Green, is an organisation dedicated to feeding high school pupils in SA townships.

The prints were made with woodcuts and linocuts that Du Toit engraved. The 13 cuts were then painted for the prints, and the project completed with the assistance of master print maker Ruth Lingen, a specialist in book art.

Fortunately for him, he also got to keep the cutouts.

Du Toit will see the complete bound book for the first time when he returns to New York for the auction.

“I worked on the book and now I will go back and and see it behind glass.

“When I was finished, I felt drained. I asked myself, did I really do this?”

All the books will be displayed together at Pace Prints in New York from March 6 to 10.

“I hope that whoever gets this book understands the historical value of it, and donates it to a museum,” Du Toit said.

A bronze sculpture of Mandela’s hand that Du Toit made once fetched $3.5million (R26.3m).

In an exclusive interview yesterday morning with Weekend Argus, Tutu said he did not think the book would raise as much as the Mandela Hand, as he is “nowhere near in the same league as Madiba”.

“Don’t be surprised that I don’t remember writing this, given my age,” he chuckled.

But he said he agreed because the cause was a heartwarming one.

“The fact that the proceeds are being used to benefit those less fortunate than us, I mean, what other reason do you want?”