Willem Boshoff

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Some of the brush bristles are loose and shedding, as is consistent with the nature of this material. Otherwise, the work appears to be in good original condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Born in 1951 in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, to a carpenter father, Willem Boshoff developed a respect for craft and design from a young age, focusing particularly on the importance of technical expertise. Before earning his Master's degree in Sculpture from Technikon Witwatersrand in 1984, Willem Boshoff studied to become a teacher at the Johannesburg College of Art. Currently living and working in Johannesburg, the artist continues to produce the conceptual artwork for which he is most known.

‘A book is conceptual until you open it. In art, those things are in your face. I work with the idea of knowledge in a package: how we keep knowledge, package it, store it—through books, the computer, oral tradition; how we process it and manipulate it through art and how we can share it, or publish it’ (Sue Williamson, ‘Willem Boshoff’, Artthrob, no. 48, August 2001).

According to the artist, Blind Dots ‘is so titled because the tactile brushes appear to invite light stroking with the hand, almost as if the visitor is blind. The dots were formed when the handle at the center of each brush left a small round gap when it was unscrewed. These gaps were filled by the same white bristle as that surrounding each brush. The dots are very slightly raised to make them noticeable to blind people’.