Gregoire Boonzaier was born on July 31, 1909 in Cape Town.  He is one of six children of the well known cartoonist, DC Boonzaier (1865-1950).  Born into an artistic family, Gregoire began drawing at age six and it was around this time that he met Pieter Wenning and Anton van Wouw, artist who were regular guests of his parents.  Seven years later he got a taste of painting when Moses Kottler, artist friend of his father, bought him his first paint set.      

At age fourteen the artist's first oil paintings were exhibited at the Ashbey art gallery and later at the Darter gallery, Cape Town.

By the time he finished school in 1927 he had already sold 30 oil paintings.  A year later he embarked on his first solo exhibition at the Ashbey gallery where 13 of the 27 exhibited works were sold.  After this he has a number of solo exhibitions in Cape Town, Stellenbocsh, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Boonzaier also worked in oil, watercolour, ink, pencil and charcoal.  As a graphic artist he produced linocuts.  By the age of 20, Boonzaier had had five successful one-man exhibitions in Cape Town and between the years 1916 to 1937 he spent time in Europe and South Africa.  Boonzaier set up his own studio in Cape Town in 1932 and three years later financed a trip to England.  In 1935 he moved to London to begin studying at the Heatherley School of Art, under the guidance of Bernard Adams.  He regularly took part in group exhibitions in London as well as sending work back to Cape Town.  While in Europe, he traveled to France, Russia and Spain where he painted with Terrance McCaw.  After his two year stint at Heatherley, he enrolled at the Central School of Art and Craft, where he specialised in graphic art.  It is said that combining his overseas experience and the reading Maxim Gorky and Emile Zola influenced him to join the Communist Party in 1938, after he had returned to South Africa.

In 1937 he returned to South Africa where he became the founding member of an art movement, which called itself the New Group, which he chaired for 8 years. Members were among others Lippy Lipschitz, Terrance McCaw and Walter Battiss.  The aims of this organisation were to improve standards of artistic work and to facilitate effective marketing of artwork for its members. For 15 years it organised regular exhibitions nationally and encouraged awareness that art was not solely the domain of the privileged.  Among the many artists sponsored by the group was the late Gerard Sekoto.

In 1944, he became a founding member of the South African Arts Union, and represented this union for six years on the Board of Trustees of the SA National Art Museum in Cape Town.  He also did much ground breaking work through solo exhibitions and lectures that he gave in the platteland to promote art in these areas.

By 1958 he received his first of many accolades for artistry from the South African Academy for Science and Art.

Thereafter Gregoire partook in a number of retrospective exhibitions presented by the Pretoria art gallery, by Sanlam to celebrate their 50th anniversary and Potchefstroom University to celebrate his 50th year as professional artist in 1978.

In 1980 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Orange Free State.  During the next several years a number of retrospective exhibitions were presented by Stellenbosch University, University of the Orange Free State and the University of Pretoria where he received a silver honorary medal.

In 1989, after his 100th solo exhibition, in Cape Town, Gregoire received the Cape arts medal from the SA Arts Union (Western Cape) and the FAK silver medal and certificate for exceptional Cultural achievement. A year later the University of Pretoria published a book on his tree studies.

In 1994 an exhibition was arranged by the University of Stellenbosch A commemorative catalogue to celebrate Gregoire's 85th birthday was published to accompany the exhibition. Soon after this Gregoire was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Western Cape.

In 1997 an exhibition of self-portraits took place in the Stellenbosch Art Gallery to celebrate his 88th birthday. A book by Hester Bosman about Gregoire's self-portraits was published.  In December the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Stellenbosch.

On 20 February 1999, Prof. Muller Ballot, director of the Stellenbosch University Museum opened Gregoire's own gallery, Galerie Gregoire in Onrus River:

"A humble and attentive person, Gregoire Boonzaier, possesses a wonderful sense of humour and an innate charm. He is well schooled in a number of subjects especially art, literature, music and philosophy.  He is also a connoiseur of fine food and wine and a pretty handy cook himself.  He is highly disciplined and this has allowes him to continue working constantly for nearly 80 years now. Although Gregoire prefers working with oil paint, he also enjoys working with pen and ink, water colours, pastels and linocut."

As an artist, he was renowned for his elegant compositions, arresting visual structures and for outstanding technique and style. His paintings are timeless creations that captured the essence of the times.

Politically, he was an early member of the South African Communist Party.  He made a statement of social concern through his paintings in the 1930s when a conservative wave of thought was sweeping the world.

Painter Pieter Wenning and sculptors Moses Kottler and Anton van Wouw were artists the young Boonzaier came into contact with. Wenning, particularly as one of the first artists to introduce impressionist painting in South Africa, is noted as a strong influence.

Writer AJ Werth has commented that Boonzaier's works showed the influence of the European grand masters like George Braque, Vincent van Goch, Maurice Utrillo and the cubism movement. But Boonzaier maintained a "distinctive individual style", which may be classified as "late impressionism."  Art commentators have noted that "he painted what he saw… looking at everyday life, activities and the landscape itself."  But it is also noted that he was not as ephemeral as the Impressionist painters. His works had a harder edge in structure of the painting and he looked at society very closely.

Boonzaier, like female counterpart artist Helen Anne Petrie, had a decades-long creative engagement with District Six in Cape Town.  His studies of life in District Six offered social commentary rather than meekly reproducing the landscape of South Africa.  He chronicled District Six from its glory days to its demolition by the apartheid regime.

This outpouring of hundreds of paintings and graphics over the years was a timely intervention because it provides a priceless documentation and artistic memorial ensuring that the substance and texture of District Six's social and cultural life remains long after its physical reality has been erased from the map of Cape Town.

Boonzaier played a leading role in encouraging (white) artists to contribute to the cultural upliftment of South African people.  He argued that the successful career of a serious artist is dependent on the cultural awareness of a community.

He was instrumental in helping set up the South African Association of the Arts, which aimed to raise levels of understanding art nationally.  As an active member of the artist's community he served on the Board of the South African National Gallery Cape Town.

Gregoire Boonzaier added a distinctive voice to the rich tapestry of South African heritage. Cape Town was always his base as a painter but he continually sought to push the boundaries of his art into pioneering work, promoting art especially in rural communities.

During the forties and fifties he exhibited and lectured in more than 40 towns, among them Waenhuiskrans, Struisbaai, Elim, Genadendal, Saldanha Bay and Kommetjie.  Boonzaier loved people for who they were, and had an unaffected sense of humility and gentleness, which eschewed arrogance about art.

He remained sprightly and active.  On September 24, 2004, during the Western Cape Provincial Heritage Day celebrations, Boonzaier was honoured for his sterling work in the arts.

His death signals an end of an era.  He was a man of great charm, humanity, and simplicity.  The book on this era still has to be written and must include how he contributed to the struggle for liberation of South Africa for which he will always be remembered.

Biographies:
Gregoire Boonzaier by Dr F P Scott 1964; Gregoire by Dr Martin Bekker 1990

Medals and Honors:
National Order Nelson Mandela  1999
Arts Medal for his contribution to SA Art on 80th birthday FAK  1989
Gold Medal for Painting SA Academy of Science and Art  1958
Medal of Honour Suid Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap and Kuns  1958
Bronze Medal for furthering SA Art    SA Association of Arts       

Exhibitions:
Stellenbosch Art Gallery  1997
University of Pretoria  1995
University of Stellenbosch Sasol Art Museum  1994
Onrus Gallery  1993
University of Pretoria  Kunskamer Cape Town, Schweickerdt Art Gallery  1989
University of Potchefstroom Prestige Exhibition    1981
Pretoria Art Museum Prestige Exhibition  1978
Pretoria Republic Exhibition  1966
Cape TownVan Riebeeck Exhibition  1952
Tate Gallery, LondonSouth African Art Exhibition  1948
Cape TownFirst New Group Exhibition  1938
Royal Academy, JohannesburgEmpire Exhibition  1936
Cape TownOne Man Exhibition  1925
Cape Town First of numerous solo exhibitions held throughout South Africa     

Published Works
Biography of SA Artists Joint author with sculptor Lippy Lipschitz 1953

Source:
The Strutt Family Trust, The Mayfair Collection (Suisse) SA, The Mayfair Collection (Pty) Ltd, The Mayfair Collection Limited