Boksburg’s well-known artist Barry de Villiers dies

Boksburg’s most well-known and loved artist, Barry de Villiers, has passed away at the age of 80, on Sunday, March 8.

He was both an artist and a teacher. Barry’s funeral service will be held on Thursday, March 12 at noon at Woord en Lewe Church in Boksburg.

“Barry de Villiers was a legend. He was one of the kindest, gentlest, well-read, interesting and most giving persons that I had ever come across,” said Micha Hannemann, manager at Visual Arts City of Ekurhuleni.

“Barry was a go-getter that set goals and achieved them. He was a person filled with zest for life,” said Hannemann.

Barry, born on March 10, 1939, had always lived in Boksburg. He attended Martin Primary School and Boksburg High. After matriculating, Barry enrolled at the Johanneburg School of the Arts, where he attained a National Teachers Diploma. He started his artistic career teaching art at various high schools.

“Culturally well rounded, his interests stretched to other art forms such as photography, theatre, ballet, architecture, cinema and the decorative arts. He was a self-confessed fan of everything Russian.

“Barry attained international recognition which included one-man shows at Galleria Cittadella in Rome, Nastasia Gallery in Athens and The Ibis Gallery in London.

“During the Boksburg Centenary Festival Project the City of Boksburg held a Barry de Villiers retrospective exhibition titled ‘Painting 1957-1987’.”

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Hannemann said his whole life he had been actively involved in his community, creating opportunities for other artists to work, learn and compete.

“Over the years Barry has done a lot of community service work in the visual art field. In the 80’s and 90’s Barry taught art classes free of charge to underprivileged children from Vosloorus, who otherwise would not have had any access to visual arts. He obtained art material through corporate sponsorships.

“The art classes were held at the Boksburg Visual Arts Centre. Barry made it interesting for the children through inviting fellow Boksburger, the late Ken Gambu, who himself was an internationally acclaimed performing artist, to tell stories to the children.

“Barry then taught them how to make illustrations to accompany these stories. They even enjoyed painting picnics at the adjacent Boksburg Lake. The ages of the art students varied from pre-primary school to teenagers.

“There is a council resolution that states that ‘in recognition of what Barry de Villiers has done for his community and the visual arts in particular, he had the life-time rights to the first floor of the Boksburg Creative Arts Building’.

“Barry has put this space to very good use, through having hosted numerous cultural evenings in this space. Thus bringing cultural events and opportunities to the people of Boksburg.”

She said Barry was a founding member of the Gauteng People’s Art Association and he also instituted the Young Artist of the Year Awards, an art competition for school children.

“This ran for a period of 35 years, and was described as a prestigious event on the arts calendar. Some of the young artists who won the competition are now established artists themselves.

“Barry had exhibited at various Southern African art galleries over the years, to name a few, the Linda Goodman- and Adler Fielding Galleries in Johannesburg, the South African Art Association Gallery in Pretoria, the Natal Association of Art Gallery in Durban, the Springs Art Gallery in Ekurhuleni and the Kunstkabinet in Windhoek.”

Hannemann said Barry’s art can be found in several corporate and private collections, such as Nedbank, City of Ekurhuleni and the St Anthony’s Hospital.

Throughout his life he was a favourite among entertainers such as lyricist and poet Koos van der Merwe, from the group Prophet.

One of the works that de Villiers produced several years ago, as commissioned by van der Merwe, was an imaginative landscape of the Garden of Gethsemane.

De Villiers, who regarded the garden scene as one of his best works, also produced a painting commissioned by Elvis Blue.

“In recognition of his artistic achievements and community-involvement , both the City of Boksburg, and later the City of Ekurhuleni had bestowed numerous honours to him.

“The first being the naming of the Boksburg Art Gallery in his name, ‘The Barry de Villiers Art Gallery’. This gallery with its state-of-the art exhibition fittings, received an architectural award when it was constructed, which bears testimony to the greatness of its namesake.

Other than his love for visual arts, Barry was also passionate about the performing arts, over the years he had painted many backdrops and sets for theatre productions.

• Art work

Hannemann said De Villier’s visual art mediums included collage, mixed media, oil on canvas, printmaking (producing once-off mono prints) and conte-pencils on paper.

“His subjects included landscapes, still lives, geological structures, atmospheric content and most recently, spiritual and religious icons. His personal favourite subject is historical subjects.

“He was a huge admirer of Vaslav Nadjnski the Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, who has influenced him to a certain degree.

“Barry was a very versatile artist, who was equally comfortable in the realistic and abstract styles. Barry was a master of the abstract style, in both printmaking and painting.

“Barry’s still-lives are mostly brightly coloured images reminiscent of a farm kitchen scene or a table with objects centred around a floral arrangement. His abstracts are mostly in muted shades of blues, dusty pink, beige and browns.

“Between 1979 and 1986, Barry made 18 extensive painting trips to Namibia, painting landscapes and the realistic and abstract idiom. This was his South West Africa Namibia period. The forms and colours from this period were prominent in his abstract works for many years thereafter.

“Personally, I find these his most stunning pieces as his unique approach to the beautiful desolate landscape and its geological formations are done in a professional fashion. His colours and compositions in these pieces are breath-taking and close to perfection.

“Paging through Barry’s scrapbook of art exhibition openings and newspaper articles, I made the following observations on his art styles over the last number of decades. He was always working in the zeitgeist or spirit of the time.

“In the 1950’s during schooling and university, he worked in the modernism and futuristic styles. In the 1960-70s he worked in an abstract and geometrical style, with bolder colours, such as orange, with a ceramic-like sculptural feel.

“In the 1980s he produced miniatures. In the 1990s he worked on large panels, murals and stage décor.

“During the last three years, he has been working on the metaphysical plane. He calls this series of art works his Fears of the night or Anxieties of the night.”

“This last period I find his most fascinating and exciting period. Barry has been suffering from intense insomnia and he has been experiencing nightly hallucinations, with visitors bringing him messages. This have led to him painting numerous fantastical figures and stories, often accompanied by descriptive texts.

“These works are mixed media and collages, which are much smaller in size than his previous relatively large art works. Notably they are also much more intimate.

“They depict fish-birds, monsters, angels, crucifixes, blood, faceless figures, wild-eyed figures, still-born babies in coffins, faces with wild expressive beards and figures with halos.

“They contain both Christian religious and other archetypical universal symbolism. Upon first glance the images are dark and appear frightening, but they do not only speak of fear, angst, entrapment confusion and despair.

“They also talk of angels, light beings, hope and rising above the darkness.

“Through these latter art works, Barry is bearing his soul, these images are not only strikingly emotive and evocative, they are also deeply personal and private.”

“Barry has fully evolved as an artist, after all, he has been practising as an artist for the last six decades.”

Hannemann said it is clear that Barry was committed to society, and had a social responsibility as an artist, he had shown an intense interest in his environment.

“Be it in his simply conceived still lives studies, or the detailed depiction of landscapes. One cannot help, but upon viewing Barry’s art to be left with a very intense remnant of the artists own personal experiences.

• Some favourite quotes by Barry:

“Bad art is like stolen property; it won’t go away as long as people keep buying it.”

“Like Vincent van Gogh I believe that the best way to know life is to love many things.”

 

• Awards won:

In 1987 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for his contribution to Community Service in the Arts.

In 1990 he was awarded the Medal of Honour Gold Class by the City of Boksburg.

In 1996 he was awarded the Boksburg Celebrity of the year award in the category “Arts”.

In 2007 Barry was honoured with the very prestigious “Mayoral Life Time Achievement Award” in recognition of his achievement in the visual arts by the then Executive Mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni, Cllr Duma Nkosi. Not only for his personal achievements, but also for his social responsibility.

• Koos van der Merwe skryf oor de Villiers in 2014:

“Dit is vir die afgelope 25 jaar my voorreg om Barry de Villiers my vriend te kan noem. Sy kuns betower my. Sy menswees inspireer my. Sy intellek verbyster my. Sy belesenheid beïndruk my.

“Die fasette van ’n man soos Barry de Villiers is te veel om te noem. Sy geloof, deernis, egtheid, diepte, fyn humorsin, gebroke opregtheid. Barry die digter. Barry die weldoener. Barry die misterieuse. Barry die meester.

“Indien dit nie so sal wees dat Barry in dekades wat kom onthou sal word as een van ons grootste kustenaars nie, sal dit bloot ’n aanduiding wees dat ons samelewing oningelig is.

“Vir ons wat in sy dampkring kon kom is hy reeds ’n legende. Een van die grootstes.”

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’n Kleurlose collage vir vriend Koos