District 6

District 6 was painted by the South African artist Gregoire Boonzaier (1909-2005). Boonzaier painted District Six hundreds of times during his lifetime and was one of the biggest voices against the Apartheids regime's forced removal and demolishing of the historical landscape in the 1970s. This painting is interesting for two reasons, the first being Lionshead, a mountain in Cape Town, in the background. The orientation of the mountain which is a landmark in the city, is wrong for the location of the building in the foreground. The second interesting part of the painting is the date 1934, as Boonzaier was in London at that stage. It is well- known that the artist, later in his life completed and signed old Canvases he never completed for various reasons, this one most probably due to the mistake made with the mountain. Boonzaier would then from memory, often back date his paintings. This painting was donated to the University of Pretoria by the artist in 2000 for a bursary fund. The then Principal of the University acquired the painting from the bursar for the art collection. Short Biography: Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier was born in 1909 in Newlands, Cape Town. He studied at the Heatherley School of Art in London. Boonzaier was a highly vocal artist about the history of the Bo-Kaap and District Six in Cape Town and was against the Group Areas Act of the 1950s. Boonzaier is seen as the father of the Cape Impressionism, a local stylistic form related to the western Impressionism school. His artworks range from still life paintings, landscapes and portraits and he often contributed the struggle against apartheid in his subject matter prolifically as a founder of the New Group in 1938 with other South African artists such as Walter Battiss, Lippy Lipschitz, Freida Lock and Terence McCaw. Boonzaier passed away in 2005 in Cape Town.