Gregoire Boonzaier (1909 – 2005)
In 1923, at the age of 14, his first two oil paintings were exhibited at Ashbey’s Gallery in Cape Town, where he also had his first successful one-man exhibition two years later. Gregoire went on to hold more than 100 one-man exhibitions during his extensive career of more than eighty years.
Rebelling against his father’s opposition, he set up his own studio in Cape Town in 1934. After successful exhibitions in Cape Town and Pretoria during the following year, he was able to finance his formal art studies in London. He left for London in 1935 to study at Heatherley’s School of Art with fellow artists Terence McCaw and Frieda Lock. With his early paintings strongly influenced by the work of Pieter Wenning, he was now exposed to the European influences of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Utrillo, Braque and Christopher Wood. During 1936 he travelled to several European countries, including France and Russia, and painted in Spain with Terence McCaw. In 1937 Gregoire enrolled for a year’s course with the Central School of Arts and Crafts, concentrating on graphic art techniques.
Gregoire returned to South Africa in December 1937, and as a founder member of the New Group with Terence McCaw, Frieda Lock, Lippy Lipshitz and others, was elected its first chairman in 1938. The New Group rendered an invaluable service to the cause of South African art for almost 15 years. It provided a stage for many younger artists, who on their return from their studies in Europe, found the academicism and conservatism in South Africa extremely stifling. By mounting exhibitions all over the country the New Group created a much greater general awareness of art, and also provided rural areas with the opportunity to see their art - which was so different to the work that had been produced in South Africa until then.
In the Thirties Gregoire’s style was fresh and forward-looking. This, coupled by subject matter that provided no visual challenges and competent craftsmanship, meant that his paintings found a very receptive market. He was a very prolific painter, who managed to support himself and his family solely from his art – a fact of which he was always very proud. This high output lead to a highly distinctive style, which has been classified as an exponent of Cape Impressionism. It should be noted that stylistically, his work has a much harder edge than that of most Impressionist painters and that as far as subject matter is concerned, it often reflects a strong social awareness. His landscapes are easily recognisable with their ‘squiggly’ outlines, flat planes and dark, accenting forms of trees and a particular way of combining colours - either in the muted, creamy tones of Utrillo, or the bolder areas of colour of Wood. Gregoire’s still life paintings tended to be the area where he experimented most, showing an influence of Braque, and often differing in style from his landscapes.
Gregoire Boonzaier used Cape Town as his base and his work very often offered a social commentary, most notably in the hundreds of paintings and graphics documenting District Six and the Malay Quarter (Bo-Kaap) over several decades – serving as a chronicle of its culture and colourful social texture long after the physical reality had gone. He was one of the first artists to paint squatter camps, and enjoyed drawing portraits of all the interesting ‘types’ - as he referred to the people he would meet on his excursions.
In 1945 he was a founding member of the SAAA, and as a result was a Trustee of the SA National Gallery for the subsequent six years. Through this position, he tried to raise the levels of art appreciation and understanding nationally, and travelled extensively in the platteland - exhibiting and teaching under the auspices of the Department of Adult Education.
Gregoire participated, with 43 other SA artists, in the ‘Exhibition of South African Art’ at the Tate Gallery in London in 1948.
In 1959 he was awarded the SA Medal of Honour for Painting by the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and in 1964 the first book on Gregoire and his work, written by Dr F. P. Scott, was published.
In 1967, the Pretoria Art Gallery presented the first retrospective exhibition of Gregoire’s paintings, and to celebrate the occasion of his fiftieth year as a professional artist, Boonzaier was honoured by the Potchefstroom University by a retrospective exhibition in 1978.
Two further retrospective exhibitions were held in the Eighties – in 1981 at the University of Stellenbosch and in 1985 at the University of Pretoria. Gregoire was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1980 by the University of the Orange Free State and another by the University of the Western Cape in 1993.
Towards the end of his career, Gregoire was often annoyed about the fact that most art buyers were only interested in his paintings of District Six, and would always remind them that he painted many different subject matter. This led to an exhibition of 100 paintings, compiled by Gregoire himself, titled ‘Variations on different themes’. This collection of paintings, watercolours, drawings and linocuts, of which none were for sale, was exhibited at the Onrus Galerie, the University of Pretoria and the Sasol Museum in Stellenbosch during 1993 and 1994. Gregoire had included only 6 works of District Six, focusing on the range of subject matter portrayed in different styles and media that formed part of his oeuvre. These included portraits, self portraits, flower studies, still life studies, tree studies, rural landscape scenes and interior scenes in different media.
Gregoire Boonzaier died on 22 April 2005, a few months before his 96th birthday, after an extraordinary life and productive career during which he was able to serve as mentor and teacher to generations of South African artists and art lovers.
Publications:
1964 – ‘Gregoire Boonzaier’ by Dr. FP Scott (Tafelberg)
1989 – ‘Gregoire Boonzaier’ by Dr. Martin Bekker (Human & Rousseau)
References:
‘Art & Artists of South Africa’ by Esmé Berman
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