Willem Boshoff (born 1951, Johannesburg, South Africa) is one of South Africa's foremost contemporary artists and regularly exhibits nationally and internationally.artthrob"> Boshoff spent his childhood in Vanderbijlpark, which is a town located next to the Vaal River, located approximately seventy five kilometers south of Johannesburg. His father, Martiens, was a carpenter which allowed him to develop a love for working with wood. This had a large influence on his current technical expertise. Boshoff is known primarily for his conceptual installations. The way he communicates his ideas and has a social responsibility is what makes Boshoff a conceptual artist.Staden-Garbett, Miranthe. 2009. "The worldcentric art of Willem Boshoff: an analysis of artefact and discipline in Children of the Stars." South African Journal of Art History 24, no. 2: 114-127. According to a book that was written by Ivan Vladislavić, he states that Willem Boshoff is "an artist who had been creating unusual art since the Seventies, although he came to widespread public attention with his installation ''The Blind Alphabet'' at the Johannesburg Biennale
Africus 95
” “Calling himself a ‘linguistic terrorist,’ Boshoff stresses not only that he has claimed all languages as a weapon in an artistic war against cultural hegemony, but also that his tactics are unconventional.” Boshoff's academic career stretches beyond a span of twenty years. He trained as a teacher at the Johannesburg College of Art before pursuing a diploma in fine art, with an emphasis on printmaking, in 1980. He received a master's degree in sculpture from

Technikon Witwatersrand The Technikon Witwatersrand was a technikon located in Johannesburg, South Africa. On 1 January 2005, it merged with Rand Afrikaans University and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg. The fo ...

in 1984. He made study trips to Austria and Germany in 1982, as well as to England, Wales, and Scotland in 1993.artthrob" /> He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Johannesburg in 2008. Boshoff, one of South Africa's most established artists, has joined the Department of Fine Arts as a mentor for postgraduate students. Prof. Boshoff, whose work has been shown extensively in South Africa and internationally, will serve as mentor and resident artist in the department. Prof. Boshoff made his mark at the university in 2011 when his Thinking Stone sculpture, one of sixteen artworks commissioned by the Sculpture-on-Campus project, was installed near the Main Building. The "Black Belfast " granite stone, situated next to the H vd Merwe Scholtz Hall, weighs approximately 20 ton and, to date,is the largest of the artworks funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust fund. Mr Ben Botma, Head of the Department of Fine Arts, says Prof. Boshoff, who is based in Gauteng, will work on the Bloemfontein Campus for certain months of the year. "As an artist he is extremely productive and has an impressive international exhibition programme. As a result he has a good overview of what happens in the most important museums and contemporary galleries. This information and insight can be shared with students with great success." Mr Botma says although the mentorship is aimed at postgraduate students, Prof. Boshoff's presence and obsessive work habits will also motivate and inspire undergraduate students. "Willem is very popular as external examiner and moderator at other universities and he has a good perspective of what happens at the major universities". Boshoff would eventually leave the University and focus on becoming a professional artist.Zeitz MOCAA. n.d. "Art and Artists: Willem Boshoff." Accessed October 21, 2021. https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/willem-boshoff/. His installations are frequently based on the exploration of

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

and are created in materials ranging from stone to paper to sand. Boshoff has also worked with plant-related art pieces. He submitted a piece into th
GrowBox Art Project
that referenced the Biblical parable of the sower sowing seed on the rocky ground.

Exhibitions

Boshoff's work was first exhibited in 1981, and in 1985 as part of a travelling group exhibition of South African Art in South Africa and to West Germany, titled 'Tributaries'. His work has subsequently been exhibited in numerous worldwide exhibitions, such as: the 1st Johannesburg Biennial (Africus), 1995; the 23rd International Biennial of São Paulo, 1996; the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial, 1997; 'Memory, Intimacy Traces' (Intimas Memorias Marcas) curated by Fernando Alvim at Pavilhãoa Branco, at th
Museu da Cidade
in Lisbon, Portugal and touring to the

Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp ( nl, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, commonly abbreviated as ''M HKA'', previously ''MuHKA'') is the contemporary art museum of the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Its current director is Bart de Baere. Overvie ...

, Belgium in 2000. In 1999, his installation 'Garden of words II' was exhibited at the 8th Floralies Internationales, Nantes, France and his work was also exhibited as part of a group show titled: 'Conceptualist Art: Points of Origin 1950s–1980s' at the

Queens Museum of Art The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its p ...

, New York and travelled to the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

, Minneapolis in 2000. In the same year his work was exhibited at the

, Belgium; Th
White Box Gallery
Chelsea, New York;

Havana Biennial The Bienal de La Habana was founded in 1984. It takes place in Havana (Cuba) every two years. It principally aims at promoting the developing world in contemporary art circles, giving priority to Latin American and Caribbean artists, although art ...

, Cuba; Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden; Via Cesare Correnti, Milan, Italy; Museo Nacional, Centro deArte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (as part of the exhibition: Visiones del Sur: No es sólo lo que ves: pervirtiendo minimalismo, curated by

Gerardo Mosquera Gerardo Mosquera (born 1945 in Havana, Cuba) is a freelance curator, critic, art historian, and writer based in Havana, Cuba. He was one of the organizers of the first Havana Biennial in 1984 and remained central to the curatorial team until he re ...

). In 2001 his work was shown at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art (

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning Den Frie Udstilling ('The Free Exhibition') is a Danish artists' association, founded in 1891 by artists in protest against the admission requirements for the Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Modeled on the Salon des Refusés, it is Denmark's oldest asso ...

), Copenhagen, Denmark
Museum Villa Stuck
Munich, Germany (as part of the group exhibition: 'Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa') travelling to the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

, USA. His work was also seen at the 49th

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

as part of the exhibition Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa In and Out Africa curated by

Olu Oguibe Olu Oguibe (born 14 October 1964) is a Nigerian-born American artist and academic.Olu Oguibe
Retrieve ...

and

Okwui Enwezor Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ''ArtReview'' list of the 100 m ...

and at

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

, Rotterdam as part of the curated exhibition: 'Unpacking Europe' by Salah Hassan and Iftikhar Dadi (13 December 2001 – 24 February 2002). In 2002, his installation: 'Garden of Words II' was exhibited at Vandskel Kunstcentret, Silkeborg Bad, Denmark; at Camouflage, Observatorio, Brussels and in Switzerland in 2003. In 2003 his work was also exhibited at

Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the permanent col ...

, Brandeis University, Boston, USA
Galerie Asbæk
Copenhagen, Denmark as part of the exhibition: 'Sted/Place' and Musee departmental de la Haute-Saône Albert Demard, Champlitte, France. 2005 saw his work exhibited at the 'Textures' exhibition at the

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA and in 2008 his work formed part of an exhibition curated by Stichting Sonsbeek in Arnhem, Netherlands. In 2009 he presented a performance at

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

, titled: 'The Big Druid in his Cubicle'; in 2010 his work was exhibited a
Kunsthalle, Göppingen
Germany in a group exhibition 'Happy End' curated by Annett Reckert; Daimler Contemporary Gallery, Berlin as part of 'Ampersand' curated by Christian Ganzenberg and an installation at Hyde Park Shopping Centre, London, UK.

Notable Works

Children of the Stars

''Children of the Stars'' is a combination of two different themes: science and religion. Boshoff uses the same concept from his art piece ''Circle of Knowledge''. Engraving words into boulders in different languages.

Circle of Knowledge

Kring van Kennis (mostly known as the ''Circle of Knowledge'') is an art piece that consists of eleven black granite boulders with planed tops and rough-hewn sides. This was a commission given to the artist by the University of Johannesburg. Each granite boulder has engravings of the eleven official South African languages(including English). The phrases are engraved in a spiral formation on the planed top. Boshoff explains why using the South African languages is important in this piece.

The Blind Alphabet

"''The Blind Alphabet Project'' is a continuing work, designed primarily for blind people. It is a hands-on sculpture, its many pieces sculpted from a range of woods which are soft to the touch. Each word-sculpture is about the size of a rugby ball, easy to pick up, fondle and then pass on to others."Creative Feel. 2020. “Q&A With Willem Boshoff: Expanding the Range of Sensory Engagement.” Creative Feel. https://creativefeel.co.za/2020/11/expanding-the-range-of-sensory-engagement-a-qa-with-willem-boshoff/. Boshoff creates multiple art pieces and groups them to represent the different letters in the alphabet. The reason why Boshoff created this art piece is to make an installation that would be blind-friendly. The information about the pieces can be understood by reading the braille on them, giving the blind an advantage against those who are sighted.Krut, David. 2005. “Willem Boshoff.” Art Africa Magazine. https://artafricamagazine.org/willem-boshoff-4 "In the same privileged environment of the art gallery the ''Blind Alphabet'' enables the visually impaired to reverse the conventional set-up, by guiding the sighted and interpreting art for them."

Panifice

''Panifice'' is number of bread loafs on breadboards with the verse of the Gospel of Matthew inscribed on the board in an extant European language.Hassan, Salah and Dabi, Iftikhar. 2001. Unpacking Europe: Towards a Critical Reading. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. 308-313. There are also boards with an inscribed African language using the same verse. The breadboards are made of black granite and they are used to represent gravestones. This piece used to represent the idea of sharing meaning. "Is meaning encountered in the humane gesture of reaching out to the other in his or her otherness, enriching the self by the experience of the other, or is meaning dictated by casting the self in stone and exporting it to distant consumers, presumably in need of self like the one and only self?" Boshoff's art style is compared to

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

's, stating that Duchamp disenfranchises art as masterpieces while Boshoff disenfranchises art as connoisseurs of the finest things in life.

Online reviews/listings

*A feature on an artist in the public eye, Artthrob, by

Sue Williamson Sue Williamson (born 1941) is an artist and writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Life Sue Williamson was born in Lichfield, England in 1941. In 1948 she immigrated with her family to South Africa. Between 1963 and 1965 she studied at t ...

, Issue 48, August 2001. Available online: http://www.artthrob.co.za/01aug/artbio.html *Willem Boshoff at the Goodman Gallery, 18 August – 24 September 2011, Artthrob, by Matthew Partridge. Available online: http://www.artthrob.co.za/Reviews/2011/08/Matthew-Partridge-reviews-SWAT-by-Willem-Boshoff-at-Goodman-Gallery.aspx * The answer is under the rock, Willem Boshoff interviewed by Johan Thom), Art South Africa Magazine, V4.5, 2006. Also available online: http://artsouthafrica.com/?article=76 * Inside Out: The Johannesburg Biennale, by Ruth Rosengarten, Frieze Magazine Issue 23 June – August 1995. Also available online: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/inside_out1/

References

External links

*https://movingcube.uj.ac.za/3d-gallery/blind-alphabet-letter-b-barbery-bigeminate/ *https://movingcube.uj.ac.za/watch/blind-alphabet-documentary-series/brief-history-willem-boshoffs-blind-alphabet/ *http://www.willemboshoff.com *"http://www.willemboshoff.com/documents/artworks/young_guns.htm." {{DEFAULTSORT:Boshoff, Willem 1951 births Living people South African artists