Willie Bester

Willie Bester a South African artist who was born and raised in South Africa suffered under the apartheid years which are depicted in his art work. As an young boy Willie Bester living in Montagu he didn’t have access to sketch book or chalk therefore he use to sketch in the ground sands with his finger acting as a pencil as a young child. Bester self-taught himself to oil paint on canvas because he thought to be a true artist at that time he had to know how to paint and not sculpting. His love for art became when he walk from home noticing the different houses and then returning home and trying to rebuilt it in ice cream sticks ,cardboard boxes and matches which he collect from the street. Later he became to work in oil paints and did mix medium as well.
Willie Bester is a well established artist today because he always sensed a deep need to give shape to the things he was experienced around him. Bester is a political and cultured artist which you can see in his art works. It’s a voice of injustice to the apartheid times.
Bester inspiration was the poverty, infrastructure as we can see in his art work as well as the households of the Western prints on the walls of their houses, therefore making his work more Western tradition he lived in the Montagu where he painted portraits of Montagu people. His artwork is like a record, document each person showing great emotion. It’s like a narrative wanting to tell his story which he display in his work. But later in his life he started using his own life as a source of inspiration. In different stages of his life he started using different mediums and from oil painting to collages and assembly, mix medium.
In bester art work there is always a solution to the problem, his art work is usually harsh a graphic depicting life as a ‘’Black South African’’ during the apartheid times and showing children abuse. You can identify his work by the material he uses like metal, wire, scraps and in his work uses Neldedle patterns, Graffiti and oil paint and his art work is usually lumbering.
One if his painting is Head North, dated in 1995 the Medium used is mixed media and this painting measures up to 1800x3500x1200.
‘’We despair of saving the colony from those evils which threaten it by turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants who are allowed to infest the country in any part, nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country that is destructed by internal commotions' Piet Retief. Leader of the Voortrekkers. First line of the petition to the British who occupied the Cape in the 1830s.’’



Willie Bester's work ,Heading North seems to have reverberations of the Trekboers petition to the British who occupied the Cape in the 1830s. The ox was chosen by the Trekboers as an indigenous animal that withstand the hardships of the interior and transport edthem to the so-called 'Promised Land'. However in Bester's work everything is double meaning and multi-layered and understanding about his work. In Bester direct display and appoarch, molded people's understanding of South African history. He presents this history in a way that encourages the viewer to critically reassess the own opinion and how they view life. Particular images from the past tend to have a potential to resonate with meaning in the present’’. Bester mingles historical episodes with current realities in order to critique history. While the sculpture has references to the historical Afrikaner exodus in the 1830s, the contemporary machine gun on the back of the ox echoes not only the Trekboers iron fist from the past but the continuation of physical aggression. ‘’










What is unique about this piece if art work for me is the structure of the ox self its upright and made out of metal which tell me the animal is powerful and very strong and cannot be easily moved which stands in its way. But also have wire hanging from the art work itself tell me the ox when through a lot of hardship times.


This art work really stands out for me its called “Trojan Horse’’ it kinder remind s of war with all the metal and gadgets and weapon place on the horse itself the art work was made in 1985 and during the apartheid times. Not a lot of colour is used and the main material is metal again using different scrapes metal and forming it into a work of art.
The one leg of the horse is lifted up so for me it shows the horse is ‘ready’ in a sense for anything ready to go to war, run ready for anything. And I love the way he depicts every detail of the horse even the hair.





Willie Bester the missing ones

This art work depicts children that been lost missing and abused .The shoes all have numbers on it could be the age or maybe how many years they been gone. Every pair of shoes has it’s own colour showing us or for me that it could be any race or anyone’s child. It funny that he actually chose shoes because he could have chosen clothes toys but the shoes actually have a greater impact for some what reason.

Willie Bester's family home is Cape Town suburb of Kuilsrivier and it stands as a beacon to his uncensored artistic expression. The whole house is decorative with his art work inside and out its like an reminder for us from where we came from, our roots. The statement it makes like his art does is that by looking past the clichés of everyday life in our country, one will discover the raw energy and inventiveness that give our land and its people their unique character. ‘'Willie has the ability, reflected in his work and lifestyle, to manage successfully many different philosophical approaches, which ultimately allowed them to design the house in such an Imaginative manner. The house forms an integral part of the artist Willie Bester's life and work and would one day stand as a museum commemorating his success as one of South Africa's most prominent contemporary artists.’’