Anton Smit was born on 2 August 1954 in Boksburg, South Africa, on the back seat of a car on the way to hospital, outside the Colgate factory. His father was a police officer, his beloved mother a teacher. Anton spends the first three months of the year in his Cape studios in Strand and for the rest of the year works from his studios at Bronkhorstspruit Dam, where he oversees a dedicated work force of 14 people. “They are like family,” he says.

Anton in his creative prime is a force to be reckoned with. His body of work comprises towering human figures, nudes, impressive heads, masks, hands, angels, floating and stretching figures, warriors as well as abstract works, using mostly steel, metal, sand casting, fibreglass and bronze.

For decades Anton has been a firm favourite among the finest statesmen as well as the most famous art collectors from around the globe, with standout achievements too many to mention. He considers one of the highlights of his career “The Age of Grace”, an eight-foot- high bronze sculpture at Grand Central Station in New York City, which celebrated South African heritage and was displayed on the front cover of The New York Times.

Anton collects sayings about the relationship between art and the individual artist’s experience of reality. “Art is not to render the visible but to render visible,” he asserts, and his art achieves this in many ways. An inspiring raconteur, Anton enjoys relating tales of his struggles as a young artist. The secret to his success could be attributed to his courage and determination to forge ahead in the face of great difficulty. “A human being consists of the choices he makes,“ concludes Anton.