Willie Bester

Willie Bester started painting when he was about seven, and his artistic talent was evident even at such an early age. He did not finish his school career because he had to start earning to assist his family. In his late teens, Bester, like many township and rural young people in similar situations, joined the South African Defence Force for a year. He spent another year in a military camp for unemployed youths of colour, and this had an important influence on his art.At the age of 30, Bester took up his childhood interest in art again by joining the Community Arts Project in District Six, Cape Town. He learnt to express his political conscience through art and became active in the anti-apartheid movement. He has become a successful artist who exhibits in South Africa and abroad. His work is represented in many private, public and corporate collections in this country, and it is also sought after internationally. Bester works in various mediums but he is best known for his paintings and collages assembled from found objects and junk like shoes, tins, bones, metal, photographs and newspaper clippings that he picks up at flea markets and in townships, and which he uses for the creation of his oil paintings and metal artworks. Most often, the themes of his artwork are connected with the political history of the country and the hidden faces of the townships. Domestic Worker depicts the traditional South African domestic servant, remaining in the background, but in charge of the home, matriarchal and dignified.

Willie Bester het op sewejarige ouderdom begin skilder, en sy kunstalent was reeds op hierdie vroeë ouderdom opmerklik. Hy het nie sy skoolopleiding voltooi nie omdat hy moes begin werk om sy gesin finansieel te ondersteun. In sy laat tienerjare het Bester, soos baie ander township- en plattelandse seuns in soortgelyke omstandighede, vir ’n jaar by die Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag aangesluit. Daarna woon hy ’n militêre kamp vir werklose jong mans van kleur by. Hierdie ervaring sou ’n belangrike invloed op sy kuns hê. Op die ouderdom van dertig pak Bester weer sy jeugbelangstelling in kuns aan en sluit by die Community Arts Project in Distrik Ses, Kaapstad aan. Hy leer om sy politieke gewete deur middel van kuns uit te leef, en hy word ’n aktivis in die anti-apartheidsbeweging. Hy het sederdien ’n baie suksesvolle kunstenaar geword en stal dikwels in Suid-Afrika en in die buiteland uit. Sy werk is in talle private en meeste openbare en korporatiewe versamelings verteenwoordig. Sy werk is ook internasionaal gesog. Bester werk in verskeie mediums maar hy is veral bekend vir sy skilderye en collages van gevonde voorwerpe en afval soos ou skoene, blikke, bene, metaal, foto’s en koerantknipsels wat hy by vlooimarkte of in townships optel en dan in sy olieverfskilderye en metaalkunswerke gebruik. Sy werk is vertolkings van die politieke geskiedenis van die land en die verborgenhede van die townships. Domestic Worker beeld die tradisionele Suid-Afrikaanse huishulp uit, altyd op die agtergrond, maar in beheer van die huis, matriargaal en trots.