Biography: Goé Beyers (1911-1999)

The South African artist, Goé Beyers, was born in Oudtshoorn during the period of ostrich feather popularity. Most of her childhood and schooling was spent in Phantom Pass, Knysna. Later the family moved to the farm Garsfontein near Pretoria. She met her husband, Ewald while on vacation in the Bushveld. Dr. Ewald Beyers was a well-known agronomist and a keen gardener. Together Goé and Ewald spent many hours gardening. Their annual show of bearded irises won first prizes on flower shows in Stellenbosch. Hence flowers naturally became a reoccurring theme in Goé's work.

Goé was a devoted mother and over the years was continually torn between family and painting. As she once commented, somewhat forlornly, that she had neglected a career in painting for love of the family. Consequently, as a person Goé sometimes had mercurial moods often inspired by an impulsive zest to paint. She was never driven by a pecuniary motive. Her somewhat reclusive inclinations and possessive guardianship towards the art works she so vividly created meant she did not actively seek to exhibit or sell her paintings. The Goé Beyers collection therefore remained largely within the confines of close family members.

Training

Goé attended the Art School in Stellenbosch. The teachings at the Art School although providing the basic fundamentals of painting proved to be a rigid and restrictive influence against which Goé instinctively rebelled. Consequently, Goé's earliest work is distinctly representative of the Art school influence. Subsequently, her succession of paintings became increasing individualistic in style, with characteristically bold strokes of the palet knife, and typically showing examples of Impressionistic, Post-Impressionistic and Expressionistic influences.