Biography

OFFICIALLY REGISTERED AS: GREGOIRE BOONZAIER ART INVESTMENTS CC

DIRECTOR MEMBERS: ANTON BOONZAIER / EMILE BOONZAIER / SYBRAND SMIT

whose daring individuality he instinctively identified toward developing that unmistakable Gregoire stamp.
Similarities between the work of Gregoire and fellow student Edward Wolfe during this time are interesting.
1940 - A sudden art boom driven by frustrated investors as a result of the war sees Gregoire return to Cape Town.
1942 - Succeeds CHARLES PEERS as NEW GROUP Chairman.
1944 - Becomes a founding member of THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF ARTS, which he represents on the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery for 6 of his 8 years at the helm of the NEW GROUP. Meets his future wife Aletta Maria Gravett (née Lombard), erstwhile librarian at the Carnegie in Stellenbosch.
1946 - Gregoire and Marie move in at the “bohemian” artists’ enclave Schoonderzicht, Prince Street. The end of the war sees a decline in the art market. Despite shows in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Bloemfontein since 1940, the need to explore new subject matter and, with it, the realization that, throughout the country outside of the cities, sophisticated people are hungry for a more informed knowledge of art, Gregoire begins to embark on his 15-year quest to promote the works of NEW GROUP peers following fresh trends that rebel against the bad taste of “chocolate-box daubs” still adorning pride of place on walls in every town. Lectures are followed by invitations to exhibit all over South Africa, even in the then Rhodesia. Thus: GREGOIRE BOONZAIER A HOUSEHOLD NAME.
1949 - WENNING CO-AUTHORED BY GREGOIRE BOONZAIER AND LIPPY LIPSHITZ, a collectors’ item, some still available only at GALERIE GREGOIRE. Painting trips to and shows across the West Coast, Eastern Free State, Southern and Eastern Cape are frequent, as well as tours on the lecture circuit with the then Department of