Notes

“Onthou ek weer die keer wat ek by Gregoire in sy ateljee gekom het, terwyl hy besig was met die skildery Moskee met Duiwelspiek, Kaap. Ons het mekaar toe darem al goed geken. Die werk het my dadelik aangegryp en ek wou dit terstond koop. Gregoire het egter vasgeskop en gese dis nie klaar nie. Hy het graag, voordat hy met ’n skildery begin het, ’n dun laag kleur oor die wit doek aangebring, wat die atmosfeer van die uiteindelike skildery help bepaal het. Hy het dikwels dele van die doek met hierdie basiese kleur oopgelaat, maar soms het hy ook, myns insiens, te ver gegaan, eintlik die werk óórskilder. In hierdie skildery was ’n buitengewone groot deel van die doek nog oop. Die indruk van vlugtigheid en spontaniëteit wat dit skep, het my veral getref. Dit illustreer ook mooi Gregoire se geliefkoosde tegniek om die struktuur van ’n skildery vooraf op die doek te “skets”, met, of houtskool of donker verf.”

“I remember again the time I came to Gregoire in his studio, while he was working on the painting Mosque with Devil’s Peak, Cape. We knew each other well then. The work captivated me
immediately and I wanted to buy it immediately. However, Gregoire dug in his heels and said it wasn’t finished. Before starting a painting, he liked to apply a thin layer of colour over the white canvas, which determined the atmosphere of the final painting. He often left parts of the canvas open with this basic colour, but sometimes he also went too far, in my opinion, over painting the work. In this painting, an unusually large part of the canvas was still open. The impression of fleetingness and spontaneity it created particularly struck me. It also nicely illustrates Gregoire’s favourite technique of “sketching” the structure of a painting on the canvas in advance, with either charcoal or dark paint.” —Dr Matthys J Strydom, 2016

Gregoire Boonzaier was the first living artist of consequence that Matthys Strydom met during his journey as a collector. In 1967, Strydom’s son, Ludwig, was hospitalised in Cape Town. During their parental vigil, Matthys and his wife, Helene, attended an exhibition of Boonzaier’s work. Impressed, they looked up the artist’s name in the telephone directory and called the number. The ensuing meeting in Kenilworth led to the purchase of their first important painting, a wintery Cape landscape with a bare oak tree in front of whitewashed homesteads at Suurbraak, a former mission station in the Overberg. Produced a year earlier, the work (not included in this sale) cost R400.

The Strydom Collection includes 14 oils and a number of watercolours, all by Boonzaier’s hand. Most of the works date from the 1960s and 70s, a period of increasing national acclaim for Boonzaier, and reflect the warm relationship between artist and collector. However, the offering includes two oils from the 1940s that provide insight into Boonzaier’s earlier painterly style and diverse subject matter. Lot 259 is a gorgeous flower study from 1941 that mixes precise mark making with showy brushwork and superfluous decorative details. Showmanship and painterly delight are hallmarks of Boonzaier’s still lifes. This is evident in the rich surface treatment the artist lavishes on the sectioned melons appearing in lot 261. Painted in 1969, this impressive still life is an ancestor to Penny Siopis’ extravagant banquet paintings of the  1980s, which feature similarly vigorous depictions of melons.

Boonzaier’s interest in Cape vernacular architecture led him to frequently portray street scenes from Bo-Kaap and District Six. Works describing these central suburbs of Cape Town are now highly sought after. In 2015, Strauss & Co sold a Bo-Kaap scene for R1,136 million. Lot 263, which generously depicts a ziggurat of yellow homes in Bo-Kaap, stands capably next to this record-earning work. Lot 256, a view of Table Mountain from Hanover Street in District Six, is typical of Boonzaier’s architectural scenes. See for example lot 258, which shows a mosque in District Six. “The impression of ephemerality and spontaneity it creates particularly struck me,” writes Strydom in reference to the latter work.¹

Among the many artists discussed in Strydom’s two books, Boonzaier emerges as an important friend and mentor. Strydom was selective in following the artist’s advice, notably ignoring Boonzaier’s attempts to dissuade him from opening an art gallery in George. “No man, that place is just full of art philistines!” remarked Boonzaier, who starting in 1946 regularly exhibited and lectured in small towns across South Africa.² In Strydom’s view, Boonzaier’s contributions to building interest in art among ordinary folk ranks alongside his efforts founding the New Group and South African Association of Arts. Fittingly, the Strydom Collection includes one of the artist’s many self-portraits, lot 257, made before the arrival of his white beard.

^1. Matthys J. Strydom (2016) Stories teen my muur, Eversdal: Inset Uitgewers, page 25.
^2. Ibid, page 33.

Provenance

Die Kunskamer, Cape Town, 1977. 

Dr Matthys Johannes Strydom Family Collection.

Exhibited

Die Kunskamer, Cape Town, Solo Exhibition, 8 February to 31 March 1978, cat. no. 18. 

Literature

Matthys Strydom (2016) Stories Teen My Muur, Eversdal: Matthys Strydom, illustrated in colour on page 24.