Tributes pour in for gifted Durban artist, Andrew Verster

“ANDREW Verster died peacefully (on) his bed on Sunday 16th February. It was the kind of death he would have wished for,” wrote long time friend, Carol Brown. “No fuss, no drama – an end to a life well lived.”

Tributes have been pouring in for the late legendary artist who died at his Berea home aged 82.

Verster was a painter, writer, playwright, lecturer and an all-round arts aficionado. He obtained a National Diploma in Design (1959) from the Camberwell College of Art, London, and an Art Teacher’s Diploma (1960) from Reading University. Verster was a Fine Arts lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Durban University of Technology until 1976 when he gave up academia to focus on being a full-time artist.

Brown, an arts curator who has exhibited about seven of Verster’s works over the decades said their professional relationship grew to one of very close friends.

“As an artist he was tremendously gifted. As a person, Andrew was very generous with his talent, time and knowledge. He would treat everybody the same, whether it was a primary school inviting him to speak to children or a high profile celebrity dinner. There were no snobbish tendencies,” she said.

In 2009, DUT awarded Verster with an honorary doctorate for his work in the arts, nevertheless Verster resisted the urge to prefix his name with ‘Dr’
“He never wanted to be introduced like that, he said there was no need,” recalled Brown, who curated Verster’s iconic Past/Present exhibition.

Reviewing the exhibition in 2002 for Artthrob, Peter Machean wrote: “’Past/Present: New Work Since 1994′ offers a retrospective of Andrew Verster’s work in post-apartheid South Africa. Verster specifically choose 1994 as a cut-off point for the exhibition, stating that it was the moment that he felt free, both as a human being and as a gay man.”

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Verster’s queerness was expressed through his paintings which have become items for scholarly analysis on sexual identity. His life partner, Aidan Walsh, also a painter, died in 2009.

Angela Shaw, Director of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of the Arts (KZNSA), said Verster was the first artist to exhibition at their Glenwood venue when it opened in 1996. “He was the most influential artist of the time,” said Shaw. “He always had a distinctive style, for colour and patterns. He did a lot of Durban beach work and vegetation and later on became interested in Hindu culture and the history between Durban and India.”

Shaw said Verster’s works have befallen what is known in the art world as the ‘Death Effect’. It is when an artist’s work gains more relevance and value after their death.

“We are hosting a valuation day for Strauss & Co auctioneers. In the last year Verster’s work was already growing in value on the secondary market and there is a lot of interest from collectors” she said.

Described as a very reserved, down-to-earth person, Verster was also an arts activist, using political aesthetics that challenged traditional boundaries and hierarchies.
Shaw said he was a forerunner of the LGBTQI movement, using his work to advance the rights of queer people and artists. Brown said Verster once designed a poster for the African National Congress during apartheid.

A memorial has been planned for Andrew Verster on 25 February at 3.30pm at St Thomas Church on Musgrave Road.

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