The Notorious Green Car

Willie Bester
b. 1956, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
Works in Kuils River, Western Cape Province, South Africa
The Notorious Green Car
1995
Metal, paint, burlap, glass, plexiglass, bone, plastic, cloth, wood, rubber, paper, wire
Museum purchase, 96-26-1

“A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.”—Steve Biko

Imprisoned under apartheid for loitering, the artist Willie Bester memorializes the history of harassment and oppression in South Africa’s Black settlements. The Notorious Green Car’s mesh window screen recalls police vehicles used to patrol and terrorize Black residents. Bester created this large-scale, bright conceptual work to keep the memory of such oppression alive.
At an early age, Bester made metal toy cars (draadkar), a relatively typical practice for boys of his background, though Bester’s cars were covered in metal and expressively painted. He began experimenting with painting at age 7, but soon quit to support his family. In his late teens, Bester was conscripted into military service, which served to reinforce his experience of the country’s systematized racism. In 1986, he attended classes at the Community Arts Project (CAP) in District Six, in Cape Town. Working alongside other artists actively involved in the anti-apartheid struggle, Bester quickly began to shift his artistic practice (which had initially consisted of photography and painted landscapes) to align with his sharpening political consciousness. Soon the artist was creating works largely of found materials, first in comparatively two-dimensions like The Notorious Green Car.