(Impressive large
work by Andrew Verster)
Running at the Tamasa Gallery in Overport is a comprehensive exhibition
of the works of well-known and acclaimed Durban artist, Andrew Verster.
This is the first time in 10 years that a body of his work has been
curated in a gallery. Titled The
Collector’s Room, the exhibition shows paintings and drawings from
Verster’s personal archive and represent important milestones in his career.
The following is quoted from Marianne Meijer’s Art Notes in The Mercury of August 4, 2018:
“Although the show is not a retrospective survey the works being shown
give the viewer an idea of the highlights of the artist’s long and illustrious
career. He has certainly made his mark as one of the country’s most important
artists and this collection gives us an intimate view into his life and times.
Many viewers will be surprised to see a couple of works from the sixties
when he was still a student at Camberwell College in London. During these years
he lived with his aunt Ruth the subject of many of his portraits, one of which
is on this show. It was the start of his interest in portraiture and the
body. Being in London during the years
of the “Swinging Sixties” he encountered the work of David Hockney, a
contemporary who was also starting out. Hockney was showing drawings of the
male body at a time when this was quite radical and subverted the tradition
where only women’s bodies were the subject of art. Verster returned to South
Africa and his drawings of nude males took on their own character. The ones on
this show were drawn with an economy of line and an elegant eroticism.
The lush tropicality of Durban’s foliage become another favourite
subject and he is one of the few artists who captured the heat, the colour, the
abundance and exoticism of Durban’s plant life. His ongoing fascination with
India was also an influence on his joyous colour and his love of decoration.
A theme which runs through the exhibition is his sheer love of life as
well as an honesty and generosity in sharing this through his various artforms.
His career was marked by versatility – he designed sets and costumes for
opera, worked with architects on buildings, was a respected writer and critic
and has influenced generations of students as an inspirational teacher.
Clive Van Den Berg, the opening speaker at the exhibition and a past
student of Verster’s pays tribute to him -
“The sheer joy he brought to making art was invigorating. He was also
one of the first, if not the first artist in the country to speak openly and
frankly about the queer body. The vast body of work he produced over many
decades was a poetic and political achievement of huge substance. I personally
found it very liberating given the repressive politics of the time.”
Verster, who was born in 1937, has undoubtedly been a man who has lived
through interesting times and the exhibition gives us a window into the
interest, concerns and joys of living during these years of massive social and
political change which he embraced with a vigor and enthusiasm which is shared in
this remarkable collection.”
The exhibition runs at Tamasa Gallery, 36 Overport Drive, Durban, until
August 20, 2018.
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