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Willie BESTER (b. 1956)

An icon of South African contemporary art, Willie Bester's socially charged art has spoken to local and increasingly international audiences. His main concern is to record events in South Africa in visual terms. He does not make judgments or apportion blame. He simply comments on life as he knows it, and as such his art may be seen as a visual document of history in the making. By adopting an archeological approach, by treating the township as an excavation site for bric-a-brac -license plates, coke cans, and the like - which together with other references, are collaged and overpainted, Bester breaks new ground.

Bester is for the most part a self-taught artist. Having spent one year studying with the Community Arts Project in Cape Town, the remainder of his "art" education has come through his life experience.

Bester works mainly with mixed media collages mounted on board. He uses found objects gathered from the very townships, which he depicts in his work in all their changing moods. His work mirrors a society he is intimate with. He incorporates photographs, taken by himself, into his artwork in the form of backdrops and for the creation of scenic effects. In addition to the found objects and photographs, Bester works with both oil and enamel paint, adding colorful, vibrant and descriptive statements about daily life in the townships of South Africa.

In response to the stories of racism and hate that was rampant in South Africa, Bester states: " I was angry looking at these kinds of things and I saw pictures. So I used my work as a tool against apartheid. I didn't care if it matched your curtains or not. My art was a chance to be heard."

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