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Rare works by celebrated Durban painter Andrew Verster to be offered in September sale

25 Aug 2025

Strauss & Co is delighted to present Andrew Verster: Gorgeous and Free, a landmark timed-online auction devoted exclusively to the celebrated Durban painter, educator, critic and activist Andrew Verster (1937–2020). Running from 25 August to 18 September 2025, the sale marks the first time an auction house has dedicated an entire sale to Verster’s work. Comprising 38 lots, the auction spans the full breadth of Verster’s distinctive practice: oil paintings, watercolours, prints, a sculptural door piece and five monumental tapestries created in collaboration with Stephens Tapestry Studio.

The sale is led by The Expulsion (estimate R80 000 – R120 000), a 1987 four-panel tour de force featured in Sue Williamson’s seminal book Resistance Art (1989). It depicts two male figures, both naked, their hunched backs turned to the viewer, exiting a luxuriantly coloured wilderness.

Painted in the year Verster turned 50, this vibrantly coloured polyptych revisits the biblical expulsion from Eden, reimagined through the lens of queer desire and rendered with the artist’s signature chromatic exuberance.

Verster, part of a lineage of queer South African painters including Edward Wolfe and Alexis Preller, was openly gay and unapologetic in dignifying queer intimacy in his work. His male nudes, treated with reverence and painterly care, were a courageous gesture in apartheid South Africa, where homosexuality was effectively criminalised.

“Strauss & Co is honoured to present this dedicated auction, which celebrates Andrew Verster’s extraordinary contributions as an artist, educator, critic, designer, activist and citizen. Following our recent successful single-artist sales devoted to Walter Battiss and J.H. Pierneef’s linocuts, this auction affirms our commitment to championing significant South African artists.”

– Leigh Leyde, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co

Andrew Verster, Expulsion, quadriptych; ZAR 80 000 – 120 000

Andrew Verster, Pool Umbrella; ZAR 4 000 – 6 000

Andrew Verster, Abstract Sails; ZAR 7 000 – 9 000

Bidding for Andrew Verster: Gorgeous and Free will be open from 25 August to 18 September 2025.

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