Bill Ainslie - Abstract Expressionism - South Africa

William “Bill” Ainslie was a South African artist, teacher, activist, as well as and the founder of several art projects. Ainslie was born on 10 April 1934 in Bedford, Eastern Cape, where his family farmed a parcel of land called Spring Grove”. His family moved to the Karoo when he was a young boy but subsequently left for Johannesburg because of a drought. His father died when he was eight years old.
Ainslie had intended to become a priest, until art claimed his imagination when he was a student. He studied at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg from 1952-1955. In 1958, he completed his honours degree in Fine Art. On completion of his studies he taught at Michael house, a school in KwaZulu Natal. He also taught art at Cyrene Mission in Zimbabwe and King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, his alma mater In 1960, Bill married Sophia Jansen-Schottell (known as Fieka). He died in a car accident in August 1989 returning from an international workshop at the Cyrene Mission in Zimbabwe.Ainslie’s paintings transitioned from monumental African figures featuring mothers and children, and farm labourers to abstract expressionism. He was renowned for his use of striking and vibrant colours His painting found connections with American abstract expressionism and as a result, Ainslie tended to teach abstraction.Wikipedia

Abstract Expressionism Bill Ainslie

Bill Ainslie (1934-1989)
On 26 August 1989 artist Bill Ainslie, founder and director of the Johannesburg Art Foundation, was tragically killed in a car crash.  His death stunned South Africa’s art world.  He was 55.He was returning from an international workshop at the Cyrene Mission in Zimbabwe, where he and Fieke lived and worked when first married.  People came from far and wide to his funeral: all races, all religions, all conflicting political beliefs; the wealthy and the desperately poor; the famous and the dispossessed.  They came together with warmth and love – and that was Bill’s dream for South Africa.
    “Ainslie was one of those rare, irreplaceable men, a born leader, trusted by everyone, a humanitarian, a master teacher… to him, art was far more than making images or illustrating belief: it was where human creative energy found its touchtone.  He believed that because art had been neglected in Southern Africa, much had been corrupted.”  “What this meant”, wrote former student William Kentridge, “was running an art school open to all people at a time when all formal art institutions were racially restrictive; supporting, both spiritually and financially, artists who otherwise would have had to abandon their activity; opening his school to students who, through inferior school education, would have been denied access to formal art training.”(www.billainslie.com)