NEDBANK 

ART SUITE

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HERE, THERE & FORWARD

Portrait of a Boy

Willie Bester

born 1956

Artwork Details

Artist          Willie Bester 
Title            Portrait of a Boy
Year            2001
Medium      Mixed media (38.5 x 28.5 x 4 cm)

About the Artist

Willie Bester (born 1956) is a South African painter, sculptor and assemblage artist born in Montagu in the Western Cape. Largely self-taught, he attended the Community Arts Project in Cape Town in 1986 and developed a distinctive practice using found and recycled materials. He lives and works in Kuils River, Cape Town. His awards and honours include the Cape Triennial Merit Prize in 1991, the Prix de l’Aigle in Nice in 1992, the Order of the Disa in 2004, the Johnnie Walker Artist Award in 2009, and an honorary doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2019.

About this Artwork

In Portrait of a Boy, a young figure is framed within an assemblage of found and repurposed materials that extend beyond the boundaries of traditional portraiture. The portrait becomes both an image and an object, with its weathered surface carrying traces of memory and social history. Throughout his career, Bester has used recovered industrial materials to reflect the realities of South African life, transforming discarded objects into powerful visual narratives. The work explores individuality and human dignity while acknowledging the broader social conditions that shape lived experience.