Esias bosch artist biography

Esias Bosch was.
Esias Bosch was a South African artist who was born in 1923.
Esias Bosch is considered one of the world's few master potters and has been described by art historian Murray Schoonraad as the father of South African.

•

Esias Bosch, South African ceramist (1923-2010) - Centenary Lecture 2023

Terra Cognito - A Celebration of Esias Bosch: South African Ceramist and Artist (1923-2010) Ronnie Watt, PhD (2023) 2023 is the centennial anniversary of the birth year of Esias Bosch. It invites renewed recognition of Bosch for his remarkable career and achievements as ceramist and artist but also a review of the inter-play of know-how, influences, ingenuity, creative flair, and personal ethos that materialised in Bosch’s oeuvre. Esias Bosch in his studio at Die Randjie in White River, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa (dated to the period 1975-1979). (Photographer undocumented. Courtesy of the Esias Bosch Estate.) 1 Bosch is generally acknowledged as the most eminent amongst the pioneer studio potters of South Africa in the twentieth century, that his practise and style inspired the rise of successive generations of potters and that his ceramic works retain a commanding presence in private and public collections. Hence his works have justifiable collectable and investment value. Bosch’s legacy, however, i

•

Return to Media Centre

Celebrating Esias Bosch’s centenary

14 Feb 2023

Celebrating Esias Bosch’s (1923 – 2012) centenary, Strauss & Co is proud to present a single-artist, timed online auction of his work between 13 and 20 February 2023.

The sale, consisting predominantly of works from two major collectors of his work, includes some of Bosch’s very early earthenware, his favourite medium, stoneware, as well as his popular porcelain ware, and very special small- and large-scale decorative lustreware ceramic tiles. Bosch’s initial training as a fine artist at the University of the Witwatersrand is clearly evident in the painterly quality of these tiles and some critics even refer to him in this regard as South Africa’s ‘Claude Monet’ of ceramics.

Bosch’s interest in ceramics was cultivated in his studies overseas: first at the Central School of Art in London, under well-known tutor, Dora Billington, and then later with such luminous ceramic artists as Raymond Finch and Peter Cardew. There are two little known facts about early Bosch, firstly, the

•

When Esias Bosch turned eighty in 2003, he worked in clay for the last time and took up again the direction he excelled in as a student — that of painting and drawing. He called his drawings of Lowveld trees, ‘Portraits of Trees.’ His daughter Andre Eva Bosch recorded a conversation with him about these drawings.

For some time now I have been making drawings of indigenous trees, especially trees of the Mpumalanga Lowveld.

I began working only on paper — good quality paper. I cut my own pens from kiaat wood growing on the Randjie and wood of other indigenous trees. I cut and shaped the pens to my needs — some give thinner lines, others bold.

Yet after a period of working only on paper, I wanted to draw these beautiful natural ‘tree-beings’ larger and larger, and I needed to make some technical changes to accommodate the bigger sizes. I knew these ‘portraits’ would be most satisfying if they were large — and not framed nor behind glass due to the problem of reflection on large surfaces.

So I developed a suitable medium to work on — gesso; an