GREGOIRE BOONZAIER ART COLLECTION FOR SALE 

Gregoire Boonzaier was born in Newlands, Cape Town in 1909. He was the son of the political cartoonist, DC Boonzaier and benefited from the close contact with his father’s artist friends. DC Boonzaier was strongly opposed to formal art training and Gregoire forwarded his initial studies through association with these early Cape Impressionist painters.

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. He was now exposed to the European influences of Van Gogh and Cezanne.

Gregoire returned to South Africa in December 1937, and as a founder member of the New Group he was elected its first chairman in 1938. The New Group 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. 

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. He was one of the first artists to paint squatter camps, and enjoyed drawing portraits of people he would meet on his excursions. 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., and often differing in style from his landscapes

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.

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.

We have a large selection of Gregoire Boonzaier's available - watercolours and oils. Prices are extrememely negotiable - all offers will be considered. 

If you would like all the other images emailed to you, please email your details to news@henrytaylorgallery.co.za

 If you would like to view the paintings, and would like to set up an appointment with Henry in Johannesburg or Cape Town, please email news@henrytaylorgallery.co.za or call (011) 705-3194/ 082 5532208

All our other paintings are kept uptodate on our website, www.henrytaylorgallery.co.za

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