Portchie, born Jan Hendrik Viljoen, has died at 62. His colourful, joyful work leaves a lasting legacy in South African visual art and Stellenbosch culture.
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Portchie’s passing marks the loss of one of South Africa’s most recognisable visual artists — a painter whose colourful work made joy, warmth and accessibility feel like artistic courage.
Rumours/2026 reminds us why Santu Mofokeng’s photographs still matter: they refuse to flatten Black life into suffering alone, returning dignity, complexity and ordinary domestic memory to the centre of the frame.
