André Wilhelm Groenewald (born 1941, Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African painter known for his tranquil, imaginative landscapes and still lifes executed in oil, pastel, and watercolour. Groenewald received formal training at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town) as well as the Cape Town Teachers’ Training College, and later completed a degree majoring in History of Art at UNISA.
In 1966, he joined the staff of Claremont Public School as an art master in Cape Town. He later taught at the P.J. Olivier Children’s Art Centre in Stellenbosch and lectured concurrently at the Dennenoord Teachers’ Training College, also in Stellenbosch. In 1975, Groenewald became the first Principal of the Tygerberg Children’s Art Centre, playing a formative role in the development of arts education in the Cape.
Before retiring from teaching in 1986, Groenewald served as Chief Examiner and Moderator for the Cape Senior Certificate art examinations and contributed to national and provincial committees responsible for structuring art syllabuses for both primary and senior pupils. In 1979, he was commissioned by the Cape Department of Education to write an Art History publication for senior school pupils.
Groenewald’s career was later impacted by severe illness, which contributed to his early retirement and temporarily halted his painting practice between 1988 and 1991. He subsequently worked briefly as a guest artist at the University of Stellenbosch, enabling him to attend drawing sessions. His health was further affected by chemical poisoning linked to his art materials.
Throughout his career, Groenewald exhibited widely, including presentations through centres of the South African Association of Arts, as well as at the Stellenbosch Museum and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein. In 1987, an important exhibition of his work was hosted in Cape Town with sponsorship from Faber-Castell, and in 1988 he was invited by the P.J. Olivier Centre to hold a retrospective exhibition as part of the Cape Education Year celebrations.
Groenewald’s work is characterised by a distinct palette of phthalo and Prussian greens, cobalt, turquoise, and viridian, producing meditative pictorial spaces that feel both familiar and imagined. After decades of working largely outside the commercial spotlight, his oeuvre has recently undergone renewed attention through curatorial rediscovery and exhibition in Cape Town.
