Bill Ainslie: share, remember and build website; http://www.billainslie.co.za
Bill Ainslie. 1934 – 1989. South African Artist, teacher, activist and humanitarian.
WHAT CAN YOU DO IN THIS FORUM?
Post photographs of Bill Ainslie's work, share experiences and memories, share knowledge, get involved with building Bill Ainslie's website,
Grow this network:
Invite those who may be interested in this site to join us
Communicate and connect
You can do this by messaging members, posting blogs, discussions and participating in the groups in this forum. such as Building
NOTE
Material from this site may be selected (in consultation with its publisher) to be posted on Bill Ainslie's website
Grow this network:
Invite those who may be interested in this site to join us
Communicate and connect
You can do this by messaging members, posting blogs, discussions and participating in the groups in this forum. such as Building
NOTE
Material from this site may be selected (in consultation with its publisher) to be posted on Bill Ainslie's website
PAT WILLIAMS SPEAKS ABOUT BILL AINSLIE
The truth is that whatever you could say about Bill, you could also say the opposite: the consistency lay deeper. He was as light hearted and easy as a child, yet utterly serious; he didn't care how he lived, yet he was responsive to the beautiful ambiance Fieka created; he was abstemious, yet appreciated good food and drink; he never held himself back, but was careful and tactful with others; he was unpredictable yet utterly reliable; his rare angers could be utterly frightening yet his house was full of laughter. While he was a young teacher at Natal's posh Michael House School, he once broke up a conventional cricket match by riding a polo pony at breakneck speed across a field, straight through the cricket pitch ad players, and on into the distance. The horse had run away with him, but the disarray he caused surpassed the exuberance of the event. The image holds. Bill never rode roughshod through convention at any level just for the sake of it. Only when he had no option, discovering and demonstrating time and again that custom or timidity could be shattered, making space and energy for the thing that had never been tried before.
(essay by Natalie Nolte)
(essay by Natalie Nolte)
Events
WHAT LIONEL ABRAHAMS, POET, PUBLISHER AND CRITIC, SAID ABOUT BILL AINSLE
"Bill Ainslie, indefatigable seeker of information, especially such knowledge as leads to aesthetic insight and inner illumination, matched all the light he absorbed with the light he gave out. But his quality of light was extraordinary in that it had the character of simple ordinariness. Emanating from his patient perception of duty, necessity and merit, uncoloured by egotism or cynicism, it pervaded his sphere like a kind of daylight, employed by all eyes yet mostly unnoticed. That is why, though the sphere he benignly influenced was exceptionally large, he was less honoured and rewarded than he deserved." Sesame Literary magazine
"He had a calm matter-of-factness in his style. His manner implied that he did what he did simply because it was what circumstances naturally required to be done. Attention was deflected from the question of his personal choice." Lionel Abrahams
(see essay by Natalie Nolte)
"He had a calm matter-of-factness in his style. His manner implied that he did what he did simply because it was what circumstances naturally required to be done. Attention was deflected from the question of his personal choice." Lionel Abrahams
(see essay by Natalie Nolte)
Bill Ainslie and the Johannesburg Art Foundation
JAF provided a developmental teaching program to meet the needs of students of all ages and backgrounds and for those who did not fit into the academic or commercial art spheres. No prior academic accreditation or portfolio was required, just the desire to learn. Students could stay as long as they wanted, provided they were still learning. In a newspaper interview, my father remarked, "In a sense students at university and technikon are captive…if they want a diploma or degree they have to study for a certain time, fulfilling certain requirements. If our students want some kind of diploma from us, we give them one, but more important, we help them build their portfolios" (Davimes 1984).
(See essay by Sophia Anislie)
(See essay by Sophia Anislie)
BILL AINSLIE'S WEBSITE
Almost 20 years after his passing, there has not yet been a website dedicated to Bill Ainslie, he is not written about in school art history books and there is still is no biography on the shelves of bookshops. Bill Ainslie's work was far reaching in ways told and untold. Many of our South African artists passed through the doorway of his classroom. Bill worked in the cracks of Apartheid (to use his terminology) and facilitated the formation of many community art centres in the days when art was not part of the education system for the majority of South Africans. Bill Ainslie touched the lives of many directly and indirectly. His work will never be undone. BUT is the memory of Bill Ainslie going to die? Let us change this.
UPDATE
A website for Bill Ainslie is in progress. The address is: www.billainslie.co.za. The hope is that this site will be a group effort by all whose lives were touched by Bill Ainslie and the site be continually be updated as people send in new material. The site as it stands is by no means adequate and a lot of work still needs to be done, which includes contributions from the many artists and others who worked with, heard of, knew or were friends with Bill Ainslie.
It is pleasing to see a Wikipedia site has been opened for Bill Ainslie. This site needs to be expanded. Click here to view.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Please only post photos which are appropriate to this site
For example, photographs of Bill Ainslie, his work, his art classes, Bill with other artists, at work, etc.
Please note that photographs posted in this network show up as a slide show on www.billainslie.co.za
For example, photographs of Bill Ainslie, his work, his art classes, Bill with other artists, at work, etc.
Please note that photographs posted in this network show up as a slide show on www.billainslie.co.za
Photos
Forum
THE VOICE OF THE NATION; by Sophia Ainslie 1 Reply
Started by Anna Varney-Wong. Last reply by Anna Varney-Wong Feb 7.
Welcome! Introduce yourself and share your thoughts
Started by Anna Varney-Wong Feb 5.
BLOGS
Please post blogs/journals appropriate to this site
For example; Bills life, art, teachings, history, biographical, your experiences with Bill, his art, his teachings, etc, your responses to his work, life, etc
For example; Bills life, art, teachings, history, biographical, your experiences with Bill, his art, his teachings, etc, your responses to his work, life, etc
Blog Posts
Journey with Fieke
Posted by Anna Varney-Wong on March 2, 2009 at 12:10am
Bill Ainslie
His Life
Bill Ainslie was born in Bedford in the Eastern Cape, in the year 1934. The family farmed there on farm called Spring Grove, since their arrival from Scotland in 1820. Some of his family are still there today. It is said to be the most beautiful in the country: "A paradise of hills and rivers and woods and pasture lands, glittering with butterflies, with the great Cape mountains circling the valley". Bill's father chose to move from there to the Karroo, and this is where Bill sp… Continue
Bill Ainslie was born in Bedford in the Eastern Cape, in the year 1934. The family farmed there on farm called Spring Grove, since their arrival from Scotland in 1820. Some of his family are still there today. It is said to be the most beautiful in the country: "A paradise of hills and rivers and woods and pasture lands, glittering with butterflies, with the great Cape mountains circling the valley". Bill's father chose to move from there to the Karroo, and this is where Bill sp… Continue
Posted by Natalie on October 20, 2008 at 7:38pm — 2 Comments
1+1=3; The Middle Way
Essay by Anna Varney-Wong
In the following essay I attempt to share some of the projects Bill Ainslie taught his students. Although I have attempted to stay true to the original projects, I have used my o… Continue
Posted by Anna Varney-Wong on April 19, 2009 at 10:30pm
About
MiICHAEL GARDINER SPEAKS ABOUT BILL AINSLE
No single person is able to reflect fully what Bill means to so many. In paying a personal tribute to Bill, I can only follow those feelings that run closest to my sense of him and to my sense of what others have experienced through contact with him. For example, to be taken seriously by Bill was an experience like no other. He aroused a sense of danger, a desire to reach beyond the self, a need to offer more than habitual thought, and so would stimulate new awareness and sharper insight. Being serious was never being solemn. Bill loved life too much to lose his pleasure at making mischief. And it must be acknowledged that Bill was a powerful person. He was too powerful to accept the lies of Apartheid; he was too powerful to forget that beauty is truth; he was too powerful to be satisfied with things as they are. Wherever he went, and whatever he did, he caused change to happen. This city of Johannesburg is different because of Bill; this country is different because of Bill. There is no doubt in my mind that the spirit of liberation and that determination to transform this society are extensions of what Bill dedicated himself to over thirty years ago. His influence cannot yet be measured, and if it ever can be, we will all be astonished at its extent.
It is impossible to separate Bill as a person from his involvement in the community and from him as an artist. Yet in my emphasis upon Bill as a person, I want to include that quality of patient gentleness which is so much part of his presence: in his voice, in his hand, in his eyes. And that gentleness cannot be felt or remembered as softness. That gentleness was part of a determination and an intensity of focus which made absolutely sure that things happened. If they did not happen soon, he made sure they happened eventually.
(essay by Natalie Nolte)
It is impossible to separate Bill as a person from his involvement in the community and from him as an artist. Yet in my emphasis upon Bill as a person, I want to include that quality of patient gentleness which is so much part of his presence: in his voice, in his hand, in his eyes. And that gentleness cannot be felt or remembered as softness. That gentleness was part of a determination and an intensity of focus which made absolutely sure that things happened. If they did not happen soon, he made sure they happened eventually.
(essay by Natalie Nolte)
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