Andrew Verster - Odd Conversations

CONTEMPORARY, CONCEPTUAL OR DECORATIVE

Now on exhibition at the KZNSA Gallery is work by Andrew Verster; it is a retrospective exhibition, which is touring all the national galleries. The title of the exhibition is Odd Conversations. The question being asked about Verster's work "is it contemporary, conceptual or just plan decorative?" Before going on to discuss the work, Andrew Verster was born in Johannesburg in 1937; he studied at Camberwell School of Art and Reading University. Verster lectured at the University of Durban Westville and the Durban University of Technology until 1976, Verster then became a full time artist. Verster’s forte seems to be collage, tapestry and painting.
(KZNSA gallery) (Verster, 2007)




From Notes on a Crucifixion (Red & Black)
2008
Oil on canvas
9 panels, each 120 x 30cm

I will discuss one of Verster’s painting an oil on canvas; the work is called Notes on a Crucifixion. Discussing the work formally, this piece is a one-piece work with nine panels each 120 x 25 cm, Installation dimensions variable. The panels have been positioned as a crucifixion. Images are of arms and legs. The arm panels are on the top and are facing each other and the bottom of the cross are the legs. The background colour is black and the arms and legs are red with bright decorative patterns painted on them. What is highlighted is the show is the 'visual language'. According to the KZNSA gallery

"It is here where Verster's love for and celebration of colour show his true mastery.Presented as patterned bodies, the inner thigh muscle of a Greek god jostles against a West-African fetish, the Phoenix with its feet in the ashes has its beak in the crook of a Roman armpit; an Indian deity vests its undulating inter costal muscle-bed with a meditative feverish glow; further along, past where the wrist meets the hand, a nebulous constellation spirals into a stigmatic wound: a point of trauma transformed into a point of beauty." (KZNSA gallery)

When looking at the exhibition as a whole Verster has appropriated religious icons of Hinduism as well as the Greek influence and African influence. What is interesting is that he appropriated all the traditional images of the above cultures. Not only does Verster use the traditional medium of paintings but he has used other mediums, which are digital prints, handmade paper, found objects, tapestry and collage. The collage pieces situated in the Nivea Gallery have deep hidden meanings to the works, when you add all the objects together, you can maybe tell a story about the artist himself. The use of found objects, tapestry and collage is a very contemporary and post modem approach. On the other hand, the paintings of Verster are very decorative; they are almost like Gustave Klimt's paintings in terms of the decorative values. These patterns could be a metaphor of scarification but turned into something beautiful. Yet in most of Verster's works I find that they are mostly decorative and lacking conceptually.

It is hard to say whether Verster's works are contemporary, conceptual or mainly decorative, I would personally say they are both. I find that Verster celebrates the medium rather than the concept. But, because I have to choose one, I would say they are contemporary because of the use of digital print, tapestry and collage, those mediums play a big role in what is contemporary and post modern. I really appreciated the execution and the amount of work that Verster had produced. I appreciate the use of detail and the obsession that has gone into producing this body of work.

References:
1. Verster, A 2007. Profile. [Online] Available from: http://www.andrewverster.co.zalevents.html [Accessed 2 September 2008].

2. KZNSA Gallery. 2008. Andrew Verster. [Online] Available from: http://www.nsagallery.co.zalcurrentmain.htm [Accessed 2 September 2008].

Katherine Symons