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1931-2008 | South African
Peter van der Westhuizen
South African Painter and Printmaker
Pieter van der Westhuizen was born in Pretoria in 1931. He studied art through Unisa under Zakkie Eloff, Leo Theron and Robert Hodgins, worked under Alfred Krenz in 1960 and Erik Laubscher in 1971, and in 1979–80 attended the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, returning to the Ghent academy and the graphic centre at Kasterlee in 1982 and 1985.
In 1983 and 1985 he studied woodblock printing in Japan, a training that shaped the graphic side of his work: etchings, woodcuts and proofs marked with his green chop.
His subjects are landscapes, portraits, still lifes, figures and abstractions, painted in oil, pastel and watercolour and drawn with a rhythmic, simplified line. In 1988 and 1989 he was invited to exhibit in Madrid alongside Marc Chagall, Yaacov Agam and Ben Avram; his largest South African exhibition marked his 65th birthday.
He held many solo and group exhibitions and his work is in public and private collections in South Africa and abroad. He died on 30 December 2008, aged 77.
