Marks of Mastery: Celebrating the Lives and Legacies of Justinus Khoalibe, Ben Botma, Christiaan Diedericks and Andries Gouws

Dates: 16 December 2025 – 6 April 2026

Venue: Main Building, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein

This exhibition celebrates four extraordinary artists whose works form an integral part of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. Justinus Khoalibe, Ben Botma, Christiaan Diedericks, and Andries Gouws – each a master of mark-making in their chosen medium – left an indelible impression on the South African art world before their passing in 2024 and 2025.

Through a selection of sculpture, charcoal drawings, prints, and paintings, this exhibition reveals not only their technical brilliance but also the distinctive creative voices that defined each practice. In celebrating these artists, we honour the permanent marks they imprinted on South African audiences and the broader art world – marks that continue to resonate, inspire, and invite contemplation.

Four Voices, One Legacy

At the heart of this exhibition lies a fundamental artistic truth: every mark matters. Whether carved into wood, inscribed with a needle onto an etching plate, drawn in charcoal across vast surfaces, or applied with miniature precision on canvas, each gesture reveals not only technical mastery but also a unique way of seeing and interpreting the world.

Justinus Khoalibe (1937–2024) understood this instinctively. His journey as an artist began in childhood on a farm, where he created images of animals and people in clay. Living at Botshabelo Mission since its establishment in 1979, Khoalibe never received formal art training. His interest in wood carving developed while working as a carpenter on a farm near Bloemfontein, though he never imagined it would lead to a distinguished sculptural practice.

Khoalibe possessed an extraordinary natural talent for carving wood – his honest mark-making and carving technique create not only visual interest but also a deep sense of admiration for the hand that held the chisel. The absence of formal training makes his work all the more remarkable, demonstrating an innate ability to create conceptually resonant art pieces. Each carved line speaks to an authentic creative vision unmediated by academic convention.

Where Khoalibe’s marks emerged from intuitive understanding, Ben Botma (1953–2025) approached mark-making with philosophical deliberation. Botma often referred to himself as a mark-maker, and whether drawing with charcoal, painting, inscribing thin needle marks on an etching plate, or working with scraperboard, it was always the mark itself – on any surface – that intrigued him. The medium he chose led him to his concepts. Understanding perspective masterfully, evident in his large-scale charcoal drawings, Botma commented on the empty landscape, asking who left marks on the surface of the land – structures of the human hand visible, yet no humans are to be found in these haunting vistas. Ultimately, it was always the mark that mattered.

This understanding of mark-making as both process and concept found different expression in the work of Christiaan Diedericks (1965–2025), who will be remembered as one of South Africa’s most outstanding printmakers. Every piece he created symbolised a fragment of himself – strong conceptual artworks infused with irony and beauty. The linocuts and etchings he produced demonstrate meticulous fine lines that emphasise his precision and passion. Diedericks truly understood the science behind printmaking processes, yet never allowed technical mastery to overshadow expressive intent. His works balance intellectual rigour with emotional resonance, each carefully incised line contributing to narratives that continue to engage and challenge viewers.

While Diedericks worked with the precision of printmaking, Andries Gouws (1952–2025) applied similarly meticulous attention to miniature painted still lifes. Through the precise marks of his brush strokes, he mediated meaning from the mundane – a cupboard, a cloth, a bar of soap. The miniature realism in his works is remarkable. Gouws portrayed seemingly banal objects and scenes that belie hidden depths, slowing down the viewer’s eye and allowing everyday objects to become transfigured when observed closely. In his hands, the ordinary revealed its extraordinary nature, inviting audiences to reconsider what deserves careful attention. His patient, deliberate marks transformed humble subjects into meditations on presence and perception.

Together, these four artists demonstrate the expansive possibilities of mark-making – from Khoalibe’s intuitive carving to Botma’s conceptual investigations, from Diedericks’s technical virtuosity to Gouws’s contemplative precision. Each left permanent impressions that extend far beyond the physical marks on their chosen surfaces. Their legacies live on in collections, in the artists they influenced, and in the enriched visual culture of South Africa. Marks of Mastery invites audiences to experience how four distinct creative voices, united by their commitment to the fundamental gesture of making marks, continue to speak to us with clarity, complexity, and enduring relevance.

The exhibition can be viewed until Monday, 6 April 2026. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein and is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays between 09:00 and 16:00. A ramp at the entrance provides access for wheelchairs, while a lift provides access to the first floor. A R10 parking fee will be charged, payable in cash only, but entrance to the museum is free.

For more information, please contact the Museum at 078 968 4300 or oliewen@nasmus.co.za. Stay up to date by following Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Facebook, Instagram and X for all upcoming exhibitions and events.

For Media Queries / Interview Requests:
Yolanda de Kock
Collection Manager, Oliewenhuis Art Museum