Willie Bester
Willie Bester (* 1956 in Montagu ) is a South African artist who is known for his installations from around found materials and waste.
Biography
Best was born in 1956 in Montagu in the former Western Cape province of South Africa. At the age of ten he and his family were forced to move to a township. To earn money for his family, he had to leave after the sixth grade school. In 1986, Best had the opportunity to visit the art classes of the Community Art Project in Cape Town, which was the trigger and the beginning of his artistic career.
Work and working methods
The socially influenced art Willie Bester has reached not only a local but also international audiences. Best refers in his works principally on historical events in South Africa and the art history of the country and implements this visually by making the city into a treasure trove of his work materials, which he then made into paintings, assemblages and sculptures.
One of the most pressing concerns in his work is, according to Best, the search for the answer to the question, why is it so hard for the people of his country to change their old habits. The people who thought that during apartheid, they are superior had not changed, and that is why he wants to find out through the story to think what gives them the right to do so. Through art Best tries to find a way, among other things, not to be disappointed and to better understand.
Even Bester house is designed according to its socio-critical, artistic expression: as in his entire art expresses best in the establishment of his home from that you can discover the pure energy and ingenuity, which give his home country and its inhabitants their unique character, as soon as you just trying to look behind the clichés of everyday life.
Best has his work won several awards and is represented with them, among other things in the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Pretoria Art Museum, the Contemporary African Art Collection in Paris as well as in numerous private collections both within and outside South Africa.