Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier (31 July 1909 – 22 April 2005) was a South African artist well known for his

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

paintings Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...

. He was a famous exponent of

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, a founder of the New Group, and a contributor, through his art works, to the struggle against apartheid. __TOC__

Biography

Gregoire Boonzaier was the fifth child of political cartoonist

Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier (11 November 1865 – 20 March 1950), more commonly known as D.C. Boonzaier, was a South African cartoonist. He was famous for his caricatures of Cape politicians and celebrities at the turn of the century, and later fo ...

and his cousin Maria Elizabeth Boonzaier. Early on Gregoire made the acquaintance of the artists

Pieter Wenning Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning (9 September 1873 – 24 January 1921) was a South African Painting, painter and etcher, considered to be the progenitor of the style of Cape Impressionism. Early life and education Pieter Wenning was born in The ...

, Nita Spilhaus,

Moses Kottler Moses Kottler (1896–1977) was a South African painter and sculptor. He is widely regarded, along with Anton van Wouw and Lippy Lipshitz, as one of the most important South African sculptors. This triumvirate had the distinction of also havin ...

and

Anton van Wouw Anton van Wouw (27 December 1862 30 July 1945) was a Dutch-born South African sculptor regarded as the father of South African sculpture.Burger, E. ''Die Huiselike Omstandighede van Anton van Wouw''. University of Pretoria, 1941, p. 21 Biogra ...

, all of whom were close family friends. It was Moses Kottler who first gave Gregoire a box of paints in 1922 and Nita Spilhaus an easel in 1926, igniting a creative flame that was to burn for more than eighty years. Gregoire's father was dead set against a formal training in art and felt that he had more to learn from the artists around him. In 1923 his first two oil paintings were shown at Ashbey's Gallery in Cape Town, simply signed "GREGOIRE". His first one-man exhibition followed two years later – he was to hold more than 100 one-man exhibitions during his painting career. After an acrimonious confrontation with his father in 1932, Gregoire moved into his own studio in Cape Town and after a successful exhibition visited England in 1934 where he was a student together with Terence McCaw and Frieda Lock at the

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...

under Bernard Adams, and training in graphic art techniques at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Crafts. ...

in London. His early paintings having been strongly influenced by Pieter Wenning, he now absorbed the work of

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

, Cézanne, Utrillo and

Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...

, and made trips as far afield as Russia, where his socialist leanings are reinforced. He returned three years later to help found the New Group, with Terence McCaw, Frieda Lock, Lippy Lipshitz and others, and served as its first chairman for ten years. The New Group served as a forum and mouthpiece of young South African art for almost 15 years, staging exhibitions throughout the country, and providing rural areas with a glimpse of the new trends in art. He served for six years on the Board of the

South African National Gallery The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agenc ...

, Cape Town. Boonzaier made Cape Town his base and his subsequent work reflected views of

District Six District Six (Afrikaans: ''Distrik Ses'') is a residential neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, located next to the city's Cape Town CBD, CBD. In 1959, people of color were banned from the area and most of them were resettled in Gugulet ...

and the Malay Quarter, recording its colourful life. He settled at Onrusrivier, a short distance outside Hermanus. He had been introduced to Onrus shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Uys Krige Mattheus Uys Krige (4 February 1910 – 10 August 1987) was a South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays in Afrikaans and English. In Afrikaans literature, Krige is counted among the '' Dertigers'' ("Writers of the Thirties" ...

whose family had holidayed there for many years. He took part with 43 SA artists, in the "Exhibition of South African Art" at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in London in 1948.

Honours and awards

Boonzaier received three honorary doctorates. His numerous prizes and awards included the silver

Order for Meritorious Service The Order for Meritorious Service is a South African National Order that consisted of two classes, in gold and silver, and was awarded to deserving South African citizens. The order was discontinued on 2 December 2002.Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

in 1999. His work is to be found in private and corporate collections throughout the world.

Death

In 2003 Gregoire's sons, Anton and Emile, together with the family accountant Sybrand Smit, took over the financial side of his art studio. In the same year Marie, Boonzaier's partner of some 60 years, succumbed to a stroke. In November 2004 Boonzaier completed some works, and tidied his studio for the last time. In February 2005 he took to bed on a hunger strike, waiting for death, which came at 10:15 p.m. on 22 April.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boonzaier, Gregoire 1909 births 2005 deaths Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art South African artists