Willem Boshoff

Willem Boshoff (b. 1951) is a South African visual artist and academic, primarily favouring sculpture as his medium. He is widely recognized for his intellectually rigorous and socially engaged art that spans widely recognized for his intellectually rigorous and socially engaged art that spans language, text, politics, environmentalism, and identity. Boshoff is obsessed with words, especially rare, forgotten, or indigenous ones; many of his works make use of play with the visual and the verbal, and he often incorporates multiple languages into a single artwork.

Willem Boshoff (B. 1951) is one of South Africa’s foremost contemporary artists. His Father was a trained carpenter, which led to Boshoff developing a love for wood and a respect for technical expertise. He studied at the Johannesburg College of Art, from 1970 to 1974 and followed this up with additional qualifications from the Technikon Witwatersrand which include a National Art Teacher’s Diploma (1980), a National Higher Diploma in Fine Art, specializing in printmaking (1984) and a Masters Diploma in Technology in Fine Art (Sculpture). In 1982 and 1993, he visited various countries, including Austria, Germany, England, Wales and Scotland, to further his studies. Boshoff is a conceptual, multi-media artist whose art deals with the play between the verbal and the visual. From a prolific career, spanning three decades, he has produced idiosyncratic dictionaries, intricately crafted wooden sculptures, detailed prints, and monumental works in stone, to name a few. The persistent thread throughout Boshoff’s body of work is an interest in language, books, communication, music, divination, and nature. Willem Boshoff’s relationship with David Krut extends back to the early 1980s, around the time of his exhibition at the Natalie Knight Gallery in Johannesburg, with artist Joe Tilson who had work published by David Krut on show. The first work by Willem Boshoff published by David Krut was a sculptural multiple called Seven Pillars of Justice (1997). Since then, he has also printed the etchings Neves I and II (2003) and David Krut Publishing has produced a TAXI book on Boshoff, in 2005, with the text by renowned South African writer, Ivan Vladslavic. In 2007, David Krut collaborated with Boshoff on the editioning of a linocut featuring a tree, created by Boshoff in 1976. In 2008 Highveld was created and finally published in 2010 for his show Big Druid in His Cubicle at Arts on Main in Johannesburg.